| News News Archive  Email A Friend
April 25, 2024
California Department of Industrial Relations and Cal/OSHA Will Honor Workers’ Memorial Day at Four Events in California on April 28th-29th 2024. Cal/OSHA Joining Partners in Arcadia, Richmond, San Diego and San Francisco. April 23, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Launches Online Portal for Submission of QME Medical-Legal Reports April 22, 2024
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Posts Updated Time of Hire Notice April 22, 2024
Sullivan on Comp Launches ChatSOC. It's an Innovative Chatbot for California Workers' Compensation Professionals Integrated with an Authoritative Legal Treatise
| | In Memory Of Gordon Doddridge, Veteran Southern California Workers' Compensation Claims Examiner. 1964 - 2013.
By Jorge Alexandria - June 20, 2013
It is often said that men should die with dignity and grace, facing the end resolutely surrounded by family. Yet the end of veteran claims examiner, Gordon Leo Doddridge, wasn’t like that.
Shortly after 3:00 P.M. on Monday May 6, 2013, Gordon ended his life by jumping from a 405 freeway overpass in Seal Beach in front of his wife.
Drugs or alcohol were not involved. A witness on the scene, Marilyn Eisenger, said he appeared to have died on impact and was not struck by any vehicles.
Gordon was 48 years old and lived in Seal Beach, California. Before that, Gordon lived in Huntington and Newport Beach, California, from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that (circa 1991) he lived in Chino Hills, California, and worked for Cal Comp Insurance in Diamond Bar, California as an adjuster where I had the privilege of being his colleague and friend.
I recall, then in his 20s, that the girls found him handsome, he was smart, and people loved him. I lost track of Gordon for many years after that only to learn in 2008 that he was part of the management team at Signal Mutual Indemnity Association in Long Beach, California. This was a position he held through January 2013.
Gordon Doddridge, center, after his graduation from Cal Poly Pomona in 1988.
On the Monday of his death, Gordon was on his way back from a doctor’s appointment at UCLA Medical Center. Although questions linger, in retrospect, suicide is rarely entirely unexplainable. The possibility exists that Gordon was given grim news at his medical exam or, with the loss of his employment, he saw himself still needing to be in that role; perhaps feeling down that he was unable to find another job. Maybe his home was being foreclosed upon.
The Gordon that I knew was of strong character, and contrary to popular belief, those who end their lives do not act out of moral weakness or a character flaw. They are nearly always suffering from intense psychological pain from which they cannot find relief. Such persons in this state of mind are unable to make rational choices the way individuals can under benign circumstances.
If claims were a contributing factor, I would tell anyone within shouting distance that there is a career, a life, after claims. But you ought to be prepared with an exit strategy. Personally, I enjoy the claims handling business but I am also the first to acknowledge that it is a high stress, high turn-over, high burnout job. Everything you do in claims is scrutinized by the client, the attorneys on both sides, state regulators, and there are strict legal deadlines and requirements. A claims adjuster is always under the gun for something and the job of a claims examiner is never done. The reward for closing files is getting in more files into your inventory so one can work into the wee hours of the day.
What those who contemplate suicide don’t realize is the pain they leave behind. I’m not talking about the pain in their lives that they escape when they die, I’m talking about the pain and misery they cause others by killing themselves.
With a huge sigh and a heavy heart I must admit that Gordon most recently worked in the building right next to mine yet I was too busy to drop in and say hello. Lesson learned.
Gordon is survived by his wife, Nadia; his mother, Camille Doddridge, 77 years old; and sister Cheryl Doddridge-Peterson (who resides in San Luis Obispo).
Gordon's body was released to the McKenzie Cremation in Long Beach, California. Gordon is preceeded in death by his father Gordon Leo Doddridge Sr. (1988).
Rest in peace Gordon.
Jorge Alexandría is a U.S. Army veteran who received his B.A. in Political Science from Cal State Los Angeles, and graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Master’s in Public Administration.
He holds both a California Workers Compensation Claims Professional (WCCP) designation and the State of California’s Self-Insured Administrator’s License. He has more than 20 years of experience in claims handling, supervision, and risk management.
He currently practices federal workers’ compensation of maritime interest.
He can be reached at Riskletter@mail.com. The views and knowledge expressed in this article are Jorge Alexandría’s alone.
|
__May11th2017.gif)
.gif)