Please be as careful as you can working at your job. If you do get injured, don’t expect much help from the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation of Ohio.

My wife was hurt on the job in August 2005. She has been fighting worker’s comp every step of the way. This is a woman who has worked all of her life.

Now that she is hurt and doctors have said that she’ll never be able to work again, the bureau disagrees. Her doctors, and there are several of them, don’t understand why the bureau will not help her.

Her doctors have fully cooperated with the bureau. Her doctors have spent hours examining her, running tests, x-rays and MRIs.

Now she is scheduled for back surgery. She was in so much pain that she had to be taken to a local hospital.

She was admitted and seen by several doctors. One doctor ordered her a wheelchair due to the pain in her back and arms.

Her hospital stay and wheelchair was billed to the bureau but they refused to pay for the stay in the hospital and the wheelchair.

Their reasoning was that the pain she was in had nothing to do with her allowed back conditions. So the hospital had to bill her other insurance.

People came to our house and took her wheelchair back. All of this has been contested by the bureau. She has spent hours with her doctors.

The Bureau of Worker’s Compensation of Ohio has also sent her to their doctors. Their doctors spent 5 to 15 minutes a visit.

The bureau doctors must be great diagnosticians. They can tell in 5 to 15 minutes what is wrong with someone, without any tests, better than the other doctors that have been with her since the beginning.

The bureau doesn’t see her crying night and day in pain. I have had two discs removed from my back and believe me no pain pill will help.

She has tried physical therapy, pain management, and epidural shots in her back.

Nothing helped. She has applied and gotten Social Security Disability. The judge in the case reviewed her doctor’s information and granted it to her. He declared, due to her back injury, that she would never be able to work again.

Did this waiver the Bureau of Workers Compensation? No. They seem to know more than a United States judge.

My wife just wants what any other injured worker wants, to be treated fairly and with compassion.

Between the pain and being rejected time after time from the bureau, she now has psychological problems.

This also has been denied by the bureau; after all, their doctors know more in 5 to 15 minutes then her doctors and therapist after many days and hours of treating her. We and our families are life long Ohio residents.

Now is seems that the state we love has abandoned us in our time of need.

Gov. Ted Strickland says he wants to cut the cost of government. I say don’t cut government cost at the expense of the people.

We were told if we take the Bureau of Workers Compensation to court in Lawrence County, we would be up against the Ohio Attorney General’s office. Once again, the state goes against its citizens.

I would love to hear from other citizens of Ohio about their experiences with the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation of Ohio.

Instead of calling themselves the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, they should be called the Bureau of Employers Compensation.

We will keep on fighting and never give up. The stress and health issues it has caused our family is great. If you are ever injured I wish you luck. You are going to need it.

Ambrose Long, Proctorville