Hepatitis

GOOD question, but chances are your company won't pay for it.

It's an illness and not an injury, just my opinion.

 

I would say it would not be covered if gotten from food. Eating is considered an off duty event.

Now, if you were unloading a trailer with someone who cut themselves and exposed you to bloodborne hepatitus, I would then document it and consider workmen's comp.

 

This makes no sense. Why would someone sign such a release?

I think maybe you should be talking to an attorney.

 

There are three predominate types of Hepatitis. They are called A, B and C. A is food born, from fecal material and usually from someone who is infected not washing their hands. B is from blood and body fluids of infected people, and C is from the blood of infected people.
The paper he signed is more than likely a form for people who sign out of the hospital AMA (against medical advice) This form must be signed since the patient is not following medical advice to be treated at a hospital that is capable of treating the infection. It states that the patient has been told the risks and is taking their own care, treatment and life into their own hands and will not be able to sue the hospital.
All hepatitis can be fatal and should be treated as soon as possible. Only A and C can be cured. There is an immunization against B that hospital workers get and one against A that only immunodeficient people get (ie: HIV disease, chemo patients, and Hepatitis C patients)
I'm not a legal expert, but I don't think eating will fall under workman's comp.

 

When I was working at a doctor's office, one Sunday I had two different patients come in with chicken pox. I then came down with it during the exact incubation time, with no other outside exposure. I tried to file workers comp because of the time that I needed to take off of work (I was too "ugly" to come back until my scabs healed) and was denied because there was no actual proof that I contracted it on the job.

 

C can't be cured. It can be treated, sometimes successfully like Mama Judd and Pamela Anderson, but most cases it only buys a little time. My good friend is not responding to treatments right now. Without a liver transplant he will only have another year or two left.

 

I had hepatitis C, genotype 1A, after two clinical trials (the first almost killed me), I went into the second. I am now NEGATIVE for Hepatitis C. I contracted it working in an ICU, but was unable to prove I contracted it there, so no workman's comp. I do have residual liver damage, but now test negative and I am considered to be cured.