Blood Spatter to Face and Eyes Qualifies as Traumatic Event for Health Care Worker

Continuing a line of cases that generally allow for the recovery of medical benefits where a worker is exposed to blood and other body fluids, yet where there is no actual proof of harm, a Kentucky court recently awarded $700 in medical benefits to a health care worker who was splattered in the face and eye with blood and saline while flushing a patient’s I.V. line [Kentucky Employers Safety Assoc., v. Lexington Diagnostic Center, 2009 Ky. LEXIS 80 (Ky. May 21, 2009)].

The worker sought immediate medical attention, at which point the applicable post-exposure protocol required by OSHA was initiated. That protocol required a series of five office visits that included tests for blood borne pathogens, for a total cost of about $700.00. While the carrier paid for the first two visits, and part of the third, it resisted further payment, taking the position that an exposure has the potential to harm but does not constitute an injury until such time as objective medical findings showed it had produced a harmful change in the human organism.

The Supreme Court of Kentucky held that being splattered in the face and eye with foreign blood or other potentially infectious material was a traumatic event for the purposes of KRS 342.0011(1) and that the presence of blood in the eye constituted an exposure as defined in 29 CFR 1910.1030(b), which describes a harmful change in the human organism as, among other things, the introduction of foreign blood or potentially infectious material into the worker’s body. See Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Ch. 29, § 29.03.

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Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker or agent about workers’ comp issues.
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