Saturday, July 16, 2011

I am looking for someone who is familiar with the AMA Guidelines to determine percentage of disability.?

I live in Ohio and I injured my left knee at work. My injury is covered by ohio workers compensation. My case is at the point to determine the whole person impairment percentage from my injury. Due to my injury I have had three surgeries on my left knee. The first knee surgery was a partial lateral meniscopy. The second surgery was to remove the rest of the lateral meniscus. The third surgery was a lateral meniscus allograft transplant. I still have to wear a knee brace on my left knee for support and use a cane for walking long distances. I can straighten my leg when I am not bearing any weight on it, but i cannot straighten my leg when standing. I can also only bend my knee enough to walk up stairs. I cannot fully bend my knee. I take two tablets of hydrocodone 2-3 times daily for pain. I also have severe atrophy in my left thigh. During the third surgery, I received nerve damage to my left wrist and hand from the insertion of the iv. I now have occasional numbness and tingling in my palm, thumb, index and middle finger as well as decreased gripping strength with my left hand. Due to the injury I have also been diagnosed with severe depression. For this I see a psychologist twice a month and I am on depression medication as well as medication to sleep. Without the sleeping medication I only get about 3 hours of restless sleep a night. With the medication I am able to sleep 5-7 hours. I was just looking for someone with knowledge about the guidelines and the tables. I have looked at them, but I do not understand how the percentages for whole person impairment is figured out from the tables. Any assistance would be appreciated. I'm just trying to figure out the range of percentage of disability I may be awarded based on my left knee injury and the depression. If you are able to help I would greatly appreciate it.

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