You May Get Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Your Heart Attack
Work-related stress can contribute to health conditions that may cause a heart attack. If evidence of a connection between your job and health condition can be established, you may collect workers’ compensation benefits.
You may qualify for workers’ compensation benefits if you’re injured at work or suffer a job-related illness. Call the experienced team of Inland Empire’s workers’ compensation attorneys at Castillo & Associates at 800-497-9774 today if you have questions or want legal representation to help you through the process. If you’re navigating such a claim, consulting a workers’ compensation law firm in California can provide the expertise you need.
Work-Related Heart Attacks are a Threat to Those with Stressful Jobs, Especially Women
Job stress can affect your health in ways large and small, immediately and long term. It may give you a headache, raise your blood pressure, and, over a long time, contribute to many physical changes that could cause a heart attack.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the top killer of American women, causing about a third of all their deaths annually. It’s the term for conditions impacting the heart and blood vessels. It may present itself differently in men and women. This may cause under-diagnosis and misdiagnosis in women, especially in younger women who don’t usually have these health challenges.
CVD can cause heart attacks, and half of women who suffer one have unrecognized symptoms. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood. A heart attack happens if blood flow to the heart is blocked, damaging it. Women may not recognize heart attack warning signs because they can be different from those of men. This may delay getting medical attention, which can be critical in limiting the harm done and saving lives.
Many women with heart attacks don’t have chest pain or discomfort during one as many men do. They may suffer:
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Unusual fatigue
- Jaw, neck, back, belly, or shoulder discomfort
- Pain in one or both arms
- Sweating
- Lightheadedness or dizziness
- Heartburn or indigestion
If you feel these symptoms and fear you may have a heart attack, stop what you’re doing and get medical help immediately.
Are Heart Attacks a Compensable Injury?
If you work full time, you may spend half the time awake at work at least five days a week. If you’re going to have a heart attack, there’s a good chance it’ll happen while on the job. That may not be enough to prove it’s work-related unless the situation is highly stressful or strenuous. If you suffer a violent, traumatic injury to one of your limbs or other part of your body at work, the stress and shock of that may result in a heart attack. If you’re navigating the complexities of such a situation, consulting a workers’ compensation law firm in California can be crucial.
Workers’ compensation claims can cover heart attacks and underlying conditions that can lead to them, including CVD and high blood pressure. Gaining weight after a prior injury and strenuous physical labor may also be factors. Under California law, work need not be the only heart attack cause for it to be compensable. Work stress need only be a “substantial contributing cause” to receive benefits. To ensure you receive the benefits you’re entitled to, hiring a lawyer to handle your workers’ compensation case in California is highly recommended.
How Might Work be a “Substantial Contributing Cause” of a Heart Attack?
One possible way is that stress from your job causes bodily changes that lead to your heart attack. Job strain may not just be overworking your muscles or taxing your brain. Chronic stress can make your body a more dangerous place for your heart, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Job stress can result from different situations. You may have more than one at the same time. They include:
- High psychological demands, like time-critical and intense tasks
- Low control over your work, such as the inability to make decisions
- Lack of social support in the workplace
- High effort without fair pay, benefits, decision-making ability, lack of information on what’s going on, and not being treated fairly, politely, and with dignity (known as the organizational justice model)
Psychosocial factors at work may influence biological developments, leading to heart disease. A highly stressful work environment can increase the body’s release of the hormone cortisol. Too much of it may lead to atherosclerosis (narrowing of artery walls, which, if severe enough, can cause a heart attack). As explained in a New York Times article:
“It all starts in the brain’s fear center, the amygdala, which reacts to stress by activating the so-called fight-or-flight response, triggering the release of hormones that over time can increase levels of body fat, blood pressure, and insulin resistance…the cascade of reactions to stress causes inflammation in the arteries, fosters blood clotting and impairs the function of blood vessels, all of which promote atherosclerosis, the arterial disease that underlies most heart attacks and strokes.”
If you work under a lot of stress, there are wrong ways to handle it (overeating, alcohol, and drug abuse) and healthy ways to handle it, which may prevent or reduce some of stress’ worst physical side effects.
Talk to an Experienced California Workers’ Compensation Attorney Today
If you have a work-related heart attack or stroke, we can help you file for workers’ compensation benefits or represent you if your request is denied. Castillo & Associates will work to get you the best outcome possible so you can focus on your recovery, family, and getting back to work.
Castillo & Associates’ Inland Empire team of workers’ compensation lawyers has the skills to handle the most complex legal and insurance challenges that come with California workers’ compensation claims. If you are an injured worker, fill out our confidential contact form or call us today at 800-497-9774 for more information about your rights and legal options.
Attorney Domingo Castillo handles workers’ compensation, personal injury, family law & immigration throughout Southern California from our 5 offices: Indio, Pomona, Riverside, San Diego & Cathedral City. We help clients file injury claims, obtain residency & citizenship, and we assist families through divorce, child custody and all family law matters.
