This week marks the arrival of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) men’s postseason basketball tournament in Cleveland! It’s a big week for Cleveland because eight teams will compete at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in several high-stakes single-elimination games. The goal of each team? To achieve the coveted grand prize, an automatic entrance into the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship.
It will be a busy week not just for the players but for the concession staff, maintenance crews, transportation employees, and stadium workers who do all of the behind-the-scenes work to ensure the games proceed smoothly. During tightly-organized, fast-paced, high-strung work environments like these, it’s easy to become injured and not even realize it till later. It’s easy to fall prey to a ‘repetitive motion injury.’
What is a Repetitive Motion Injury?
Columbia University’s Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine defines a repetitive motion injury as such:
“Repetitive motion injuries, also called repetitive stress injuries, are temporary or permanent injuries to muscles, nerves, ligaments, and tendons caused by performing the same motion over and over again. A common repetitive motion injury is carpal tunnel syndrome. This disorder occurs when the median nerve, which travels from the forearm to the hand through a “tunnel” in the wrist, is compressed by swollen, inflamed ligaments and tendons. It is often seen with people who use computer keyboards or work on assembly lines. The injury can be quite painful and can also cause numbness, clumsiness, and a loss of motion, flexibility, and strength in the area. It can worsen over time without treatment, and can result in a complete loss of function.”
According to some estimates, as many as two million workers suffer repetitive motion injuries yearly, often without knowing what caused the injury, what they're doing that might be exacerbating it, and how to recover from it. Last but not least, workers who suffer such an injury often do not think they are eligible for workers’ comp because they believe it will be difficult to prove that their injury resulted from their work duties.
If You Suffer a Repetitive Motion Injury, Contact NRS
Employees working the MAC Tournament will likely be working very long hours, working under very tense workplace conditions, and will likely be required to perform the same tasks repeatedly for several shifts in a row. These conditions inevitably put workers at heightened risk for repetitive motion injuries.
If you have been involved in a workplace accident during the MAC tournament and are unsure how to navigate the workers’ compensation laws concerning a repetitive motion injury, call NRS Injury Law today at 855.468.4878 or fill out our convenient online contact form. Please don’t let the sometimes intimidating nature of workers’ comp law in Ohio deter you from getting the compensation you’re owed so you can give yourself time to heal.
Sources:
[1] Columbia. “Repetitive Motion Injury.” Columbia University’s Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, 2020. cuimc.columbia.edu
