Every year countless people suffer from serious back injuries because they try to improperly life extremely heavy objects in a careless manner. One moment you have a perfectly healthy and young individual who thinks he or she can take on the world. The next moment he or she is trying to lift something way to heavy for them and shortly thereafter they are writhing in pain on the floor and grasping at their backs.
There are many reasons these serious back injuries happen. It may be because they have too much pride and are afraid to ask someone to help them with a heavy object for fear of seeming weak. But if they felt weak before, they will really feel weak after suffering from a traumatic lower back injury that in serious cases can render someone partially disabled.
Negligent Employers and Back Injuries from Lifting
Another common cause of serious back injuries are negligent employers. There are many retail jobs which require people to carry extremely large boxes in and out of trucks and then put up the items through the store. These employees are called stockers. Stocking can pay more than a customer service position, but this is only because it is so dangerous and taxing on one's health. Big name companies get sued all the time over injuries their employees receive. It is an employer's responsibility to make sure that their employees are always doing dangerous jobs in as safe of a manner as possible. Employers should constantly be checking to make sure that employees are lifting things in the proper manner. They should also go through a serious training program before they ever lift a single box which carefully instructs as to how to life safely. Many companies will require employees to take a quiz on proper lifting procedure after they take the training course.
Companies at great risk of serious lawsuits are those that fail to train properly or do train but push employees past what is reasonable as far as lifting goes. If an employee complains of pain and an employee urges him or her to push past the pain, that employer can be held liable for the injury the employee sustains.
Never allow an employee to push you into doing something you are unsure about.