News News Archive Email A Friend March 25, 2024 California Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustments to Official Medical Fee Schedule (Physician Services / Non-Physician Practitioner Services) March 19, 2024 Nearly half of all litigated workers' compensation claims in the Los Angeles basin are cumulative trauma claims. March 7, 2024 California's Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustment to Official Medical Fee Schedule (Ambulance Services) March 6, 2024 Accident Claims The Life of AdminSure Claims Adjuster Alexis Wicker
| | City Hopes Zoo Claim Stays in its Cage By Robert Warne - October 16, 2002Although it’s been four years since an Oklahoma City zookeeper was attacked by a Malayan tapir, a workers’ compensation claim still looms over zoo administrators’ heads.
Lisa Roberts was attacked on the morning of Nov. 20, 1998 by a female tapir. As a result of the attack she lost her left arm and suffered neck injuries and a punctured lung.
Her account of the incident is that she was preparing to feed the mammal when she was attacked.
Another witness to the incident has since offered up another account. Terry Toler, a zoo horticulturalist said that Roberts was actually playing with the tapir’s baby when she was attacked.
If this account is true, then Roberts would have violated zoo policy, and the city would have more leverage in defending itself against any future claims by Roberts.
Roberts initially filed a civil suit against the zoo, and sought over $10,000 in damages. She said in the suit that the zoo’s failure to communicate safety practices and emergency response is what contributed to the inability of surgeons to reattach her arm.
But the judge turned that case away citing that her claim was a workers’ compensation issue, not a civil issue.
Roberts received her usual salary for about a year after the attack and her medical bills were also covered. The Oklahoma City Zoological Trust is now waiting to see if Roberts pursues a workers’ compensation claim.
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