I was OIC at a fire where persons were reported missing and I sent two men wearing BA into the premises to search and ventilate. One of them suffered a heart attack while doing so.

I reported it as an on duty injury and he was eventually retired on ill health. Not injury pension as it was not deemed to be an accident.

If you consider the heart is a muscle and if damaged during working hours you could treat it the same as a calf muscle strain etc? However I don't think that would work?

For me the critical factor would be whether the medical experts considered the heart attack was triggered by the work activity, whether the work activity contributed to the heart attack or whether this was simply a 'natural' event where the work activity was irrelevant. In the latter case I would not consider this reportable, in the other two cases certainly.

Chris

It is easy for us to decide but it is when the claim for compensation goes through that a solicitor will argue the heart attack on not work related to save his client some dosh

Further in my case as above it made a difference in the pension paid to the fireman who had to retire

Medical instead if injury pension

As you are a Middle East Region member, I presume that your question regarding OSHA Recording is determining whether this comes under OSHA recording for the purpose of Corporate Reporting and not regulatory reporting. This is common for multinationals that have US parent companies, and to a lesser extent other multinationals.

Under OSHA, the first thing to determine is work-relatedness. In this case, only an Occupational Health Physician who has been briefed about the work being undertaken can advise whether it was aggravated by work or not. Under OSHA rule 1904.5(b)(2)(i), there is an exception top work-relatedness if:-

"The injury or illness involves signs or symptoms that surface at work but result solely from a non-work-related event or exposure that occurs outside the work environment"

Once it is determined it is work related or not, then you can determine whether it was "medical treatment case" (beyond the prescribed list of first aid) or "restricted work case" or "lost time case"

Hi,

Did your worker have a pre-existing heart condition?
Can you assertain from the medical professional involved the cause of the heart attack (obviously with permission of the worker)?

Take Care

Jesu

Suggest if there is no statutory requirement to report then do not report and if you only need it for stats then wait for a medical opinion, but document the process and inform whoever you need to internally about incident and that you are awaiting sufficient information to classify - if necessary the company stats can always be published with a one fatal down and then next year one up

Regards

Bruce

I agree with Bruce. The people that would need to know about it if it is an OSHA-recordable usually appreciate being informed that an incident has happened that may be OSHA-recordable, and are then happy to downgrade it later if necessary. What they wouldn't like is being informed of an OSHA-recordable some time after an event they hadn't until then heard of!

This guy had undergone angeoplasty and discharged today with 30 days sick leave. My concern is that if we failed to identify the immediate cause or the aggravated cause, this may happen in future.
Which may some times lead to fatal, if he is voyage or in anchorage, luckly this ship was in the dry docks.

Our kind of job requires phisical fitness, I need to refer to the final recommendations of the physician.

Cheers,

Jesu DXB