One man has recently prevailed on his work-related injury claims that he made against his former employers after they accepted liability for the permanent damage he sustained after years of using vibrating tools on the job, it was recently reported.
Graeme Kelly, an electrical engineer who worked for De La Rue Currency, a company based in Team Valley, developed both Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome after the decades of work he undertook for the company. De La Rue accepted liability for neglecting to provide Mr Kelly proper protection from these injuries in an out of court settlement for an undisclosed sum that has been called ‘substantial.’
In an interview with a local newspaper following the settlement, Mr Kelly, who had habitually used vibrating tools for the lion’s share of his working life, said he had never in a million years suspected that so much damage had been done to his hands. The electrical engineer began to notice that he had gradually began to suffer a slow degradation to his ability to carry out tasks with his hands that required a high degree of manual dexterity, culminating with feelings of numbness in both of his hands in 2009, which led to being diagnosed with hand arm vibration syndrome, while a limited range of motion in his fingers indicated carpal tunnel syndrome shortly thereafter.
While the man’s symptoms have diminished due to surgical procedures carried out on both his hands, this will only restore a limited measure of his dexterity, medical experts say.