Traumatic injuries

Crush injuries are painful and need urgent professional care. There may or may not be a fracture, either way crush injuries need good pain relief and quality medical care.

The emergency department of a hospital is the best place for treatment. Further care may include surgery, dressings, or treatment of a fracture.

Time off work may be necessary. The condition is painful and some days of rest may be needed to deal with the:

A deep laceration may require plastic surgery, particularly if a tendon has been cut.

The person lifts something and feels a twang in their back. Not too bad, so they don't take much notice and the problem is not reported. The next day they get out of bed and are worse. They feel stiff, have difficulty moving, feel more pain.

This situation can be met by workplace suspicion. Why wasn't the condition reported, has it happened in another way?

In reality aches and pains are common. While people are told to report any conditions, the fact of the matter is, that if every minor pain was reported it would go on all day long. People naturally use their discretion.

Assisting the employee to get medical care is the first step in the management of the scenario.

The person develops sudden and severe pain and has difficulty moving. This can often occur following a specific movement e.g. bending over to pick up a piece of paper, twisting to lift a box, getting out of a car.

Straightening up, getting off the ground, moving to the first aid room even taking a step or two can be agony.

If there has been a significant injury such as a fall, the person needs to be still, until an ambulance can take them for medical treatment.

If the person simply cannot move, even though no significant injury is apparent, an ambulance may also be necessary. The best medical care gets the person with muscle spasms moving again, but they may need medication to take the edge off the pain to help them begin to move.

If there hasn't been significant trauma encouragement to move is good. The more the person moves the better off they will be. Movement stretches the muscles that are in spasm.

Severe pain is scary and the person often feels as though their back is going to break if they move, the problem is actually like a cramp in the calf; bloody painful, but better if you can stretch it out. Going for a walk around the block, up and down the office area, or along a corridor will often take the edge off extreme pain. This may help the person get to medical care.

A local physio or medical clinic can usually assist. Hospital attendance will probably be necessary if an ambulance is called.

Sciatica is the leg pain that comes from the disc or a cushion between the vertebrae pressing on the nerve that runs down the leg. It may start off just looking like a common sore back problem. Then the sciatica develops over hours, days or weeks.

Most of the time it gets better by itself, usually over a period of weeks to months. Sometimes it does not improve and then needs specific treatment such as injections into the affected area of the spine, or surgery. Bad sciatica can be a debilitating pain. People with sciatica deserve lots of support as the pain can get them down.