Compensation Chronicles

My life was forever altered when I was injured while working at Vanderbilt. I was left permanently disabled, but the company did nothing to help me or compensate me for my injuries. Not to mention other loses my family suffered from the asbestos in the place.

I created this website to document my experience with a large company that mistreated me and caused me permanent injuries. I hope to raise awareness of how companies like this can get away with treating their workers and family members poorly. I was injured on the job at Vanderbilt 30 years ago, and my life was forever altered. I broke my back that night and have been dealing with chronic pain ever since. Vanderbilt and its insurance companies are liable for my injuries, but to this day, 30 years later, I have received no compensation except for medical expenses, which were due anyway. Even now, I get very little help with my medications without a fight from the insurance company. When I left Vanderbilt in 1999, I never asked them for anything. They told me I would be taken care of with a so-called “medical for life” award. That’s pure bullshit and I will tell you and show you how and why with this website. I was even laughed at by Vanderbilt’s pension administrator because the amount I was given for pension was so small. He joked that it was only enough to buy lunch once a month which is one reason I started this site, the other reason is NCACOMP offered be a whopping $1000 to go away and sign off the claim.

I’m just your normal everyday guy, no college degree, grew up like many of yas out in the country, small town guy so as you well know if you didn’t go to college then It was construction, farm or factory work like many small towns. Well I chose to go to work for Vanderbilt. Pay was fair, hard work but a guy could make a decent living, build up retirement and have a life. Little did I know not only would end up with a permanent disability but my wife ended up with emphysema at 34 years old, from what I’ve read this is common for a spouse who washes your dusty clothes to be affected. Click here for more details

I had been working there for around 4 years when one night on the midnight shift I was crossing a catwalk when I took a serious plunge to the steal grated deck about 15 feet below hitting a few steal rods on my way down. I must have been knocked out or maybe passed out when I found myself laying there in pain, I couldn’t figure out what happened then it came to me, I looked up and saw the railing was bent out where I had leaned against it and it broke free allowing me to fall. I found out later the mechanics had cut the railing with a torch because they were hoisting some equipment up there and it was in the way, it got close to quitting time so instead of re welding it they wrapped some wire around it for the night. Everyone was always in a hurry do leave that dusty dirty place.

After sitting there for what seemed forever I knew I had to make my way down to the main floor for help now on midnights there, there were only 4 people in the entire place so I litterally crawled, hung onto machines or whatever I could find to make my way down to where someone could see me. Strange things happen, for a small amount of time I was able to walk, not well but I was at least moving.

I told one of the guys what happened and they said lets get you to the foreman so we headed to the Forman’s office roughly 50 feet away, I remember him stating later he could see the grates imprint in the dust on my back ,he opened the door and I stepped inside then collapsed. I don’t remember much after that, it’s all pretty foggy but the next thing I knew I was in the ER at the local hospital, they loaded me full of pain meds, took x-rays and after a few hours released me. Yep it was not very thorough. The foreman drove me back to the mill where I was helped into my car and sent home, by now it’s about 6am on the way home I felt really sick, a lot of pain and still in a daze from the events that took place, I truly don’t remember a lot about the night after the fall.

I made my way into my house and once in the front door yelled to my wife, she came running to me asking a thousand questions which as you can imagine anyone would and I was having a hard time trying to explain the events that took place that night. I told her I just needed a heating pad and to try get some sleep and hopefully would feel better and could explain more once I woke, Yeh ok laying down and sleeping I quickly realized wasn’t an option. Great idea but definitely not what my body was going to let happen. After a very short period I was going from the bed to the couch to the chair and vise versa trying anything I could to get some relief.

I kept wondering why they let me leave with no meds or basically any info whatsoever but that all came clear once I found out later on the Doc on duty that night happened to be the company doctor, convenient right? Yep well this is how Gouverneur Talc and Vanderbilt Minerals works. Trust me the workers mean nothing to these people. I managed to do my best with your household meds, tylenol, ibuprofen etc and went on throughout the day minute by minute trying to help myself in any way I could, I finally fell asleep for a short while and woke to feeling worse than I did earlier, make a long story short I was literally in hell.

For 2 days things went on like this and I got into the doc, he kept things pretty quick just kind of dismissed me after he prescribed me some heavy pain meds and sent me home to rest after getting more xrays Then it begins…….

I get a call from the human recourses from Vanderbilt kissing my ass like I was a god of some sort, telling me don’t worry you will be taken care of blah blah blah. Needless to say I got 1/2 weeks pay for that week then never saw another cent for almost 8 weeks because Vanderbilts doc and insurance wanted to fight every piece of medicine, every procedure, every test pretty much anything that may cost the rich prick a dime. I live in upstate New York, 35 miles from Canada, where February is not exactly the warmest time of year. I have a wife, two kids, and a mortgage, and no income so it wasn’t the most pleasant time for us.

I’m just an ordinary guy trying to provide for my family. When I was injured at work at Vanderbilt, I was unable to work for a long time, and my family suffered greatly. I felt like a failure because I couldn’t support my family, and my self-esteem was at an all-time low. The the doc couldn’t figure out why I was in so much pain constantly, he couldn’t seem to pinpoint it so I was referred to the spine institute in Syracuse NY for an evaluation by a neurosurgeon and this is where things get interesting and frustrating to say the least.

Keep in mind before I explain this next part that almost 18 months, yep 1 1/2 years has passed. In case your wondering yes the fight for payments was ongoing through all this. I didn’t get paid if the doc didn’t fill out the right paper work and submit it, and for some reason which I never could figure out he only put me off work for 2 weeks at a time so every 2 weeks he had to send paperwork to comp which he constantly forgot, I’m not sure why he didn’t just do it for a month at a time or whatever but yeh that was great fun to deal with too.

Ok so back to the specialist in Syracuse, we go, fill out some papers, we have the original xrays with us from the night I fell and in we go, I’m hoping for finally some help, some sort of reasoning, something!!!

The doctor comes in, really pleasant guy, talks a minute and says let me take a quick look at the xrays then we will examine you, he sticks the x-rays on the white glass thing on the wall and stares at in for maybe 45 seconds, looks at me and says hold on one second please, he leave the room and comes back with another doc, after showing the other doc the x-rays he looks at me and says well I see the problem right here, you fractured your back when you fell and it has healed/fused itself ….

Yeh, so I’m like what? He says yes, I just had my colleague verify it because I shocked that its been this long and no-one has caught this, he says this is horrible. That was in the years of 1995-1996.

After leaving the specialists office I really had no idea what I was up against, I mean it’s clear that it wasn’t good but I had no idea where I was headed. I did end up getting well enough to return to work for a period of time, if I remember correctly I lasted until late 1998 and left for an office job thinking without all the climbing and lifting I would be better off. By now it was around the year 2000 and my wife started off with what seemed like bronchitis every time we turned around. (she plays a role in this story, you will find out soon enough) After realizing that If I could do things more at my own pace I was better off, If I could sit when I wanted and stand or walk when I wanted my back didn’t seem to bother me as much so with that being said I left this office job after 7 months and started my own business.

My wife and I ran this business until 2004, my back had gotten worse and her breathing wasn’t good at all, she went to the doc and was diagnosed with the early stage emphysema. Literally from 2005 until 2010 we lived on whatever we could make doing whatever we could, odd jobs, internet work or whatever we could find. When we closed the business in 04 we kept one of the pieces of equipment which allowed us to make custom clothing and sell it online so in 2010 we finally made enough and saved to open a small printshop in a local town close by. With the emphysema she could get bronchitis very easily and with here condition worsening being in the public wasn’t good for her so she started staying home and I struggled but seemed to make my way through each day up until one day in 2013 I just couldn’t do it anymore, I had to make a decision, it was tough but I went with it, I applied for disability, now ssdi is not a fast process but we did what we could, her condition getting worse, me I am in pain constantly because now my back is packed full of arthritis but 3 years later in 2016 I was awarded SSDI and my wife died in 2018 with emphysema and copd.

Needless to say its now 2024 and I am still here but very limited on what I can do. Only meds that will help are pain killers, ibuprophen and celebrex. I’ve seen several surgeons and that’s not an option because of the way my back fused itself back in 94.

So each and everyday I can thank RTVanderbilt for all this. I get a small pension from them that again i got laughed at by them, NCA comp still to this day refuses to pay for anything.

My job was taken away, my chance at a retirement/pension, my wife and many many years of pain and suffering. I owe it all to RTVANDERBILT. From time to time I run into guys I worked with back then some who have advanced in the company, some who have a pension coming to them from the company all say the same thing they say I cannot believe Vanderbilt screwed you after you falling that night.