OT: Calling all MGoLawyers

I'm not an attorney, but know that a picture is worth a thousand words.  I would be sure to document every change in her appearance in photos and also document everything drug she takes, ointment/cream applied, doctors visited, etc. 

Sorry you and your gf are dealing with this - burns are one of the worst types of injuries.

Trust me. In these situations, you need a criminal attorney. 

Points to Saul Goodman 

You need to see an expert in these matters because, although it is probable this is a worker’s compensation matter, if there is evidence the employer knew there were issues with the coworker who caused the problem and allowed him to remain in a position where someone was unduly exposed to risk, or if there were issues with the equipment itself that were known and ignored, you may have a separate tort claim.  Depends on your state law.  But you absolutely need to stop talking publicly and get yourself an expert lawyer ASAP.

document everything.  keep meticulous records.  and get the most pit bull attorney you can afford.  make sure you interview a couple but you need a pit bull not a shitzu.

Where are you located? I am a plaintiiff’s lawyer who brings non-personal injury cases. I am not soliciting this case for myself because I don’t take cases like this. But I have contacts in the plaintiffs’ bar all over the country and may be able to refer you to someone. If you don’t want to post your location publicly, send me a private email through MGoBlog. And I’ll send you a private response.

Meanwhile, don’t worry about your wife losing her job. Your lawyer will protect you from that happening.

And good luck to both of you.

If I were you I would find an attorney and take this blog post down immediately.  You’d be surprised what the opposing council is able to use against you.

I don't work in PI much, and not at all in workers comp or OSHA compliance, but my number one suggestion here (and obligatory this isn't legal advice or forming an attorney client relationship): see every doctor, do every treatment, and get as much medical care as possible.  Not only will this make your wife's life better (because treatment), but it will also increase recoverable damages which are all tied to medical bills incurred.  I've had way too many clients try to tough it out or downplay their injuries, only to be worse off both physically and financially as a result.  Do every kind of treatment a doctor would recommend, and document everything (both in writing and photographs), it will greatly be to your benefit.   Also, go find a lawyer who specializes in this, don't rely on a college football message board, no matter how unusually full of lawyers it might be.  

One other thing: Don’t worry about having to pay the lawyer up front. Any experienced personal injury/worker’s comp lawyer will take your case on a contingency and you won’t pay anything unless and until you get a recovery. 

As a chef that has worked in some high end restaurants that make a lot of money, and seen some bad shit go down, the company she works for will def provide workers comp.  it’ll be an insurance claim for her employer and it shouldn’t be to much of a problem.  Unless she has life altering injuries I doubt you will get any more compensation than workers comp provides. 

I am not a lawyer but my cynical side wants you to ask her this.

Did she see him actually release the steam or merely walk back to where the valve was?

I hope that POS coworker didn’t fake releasing the steam.

First of all, terrible to hear.  Prayers for your girlfriend, and I hope she gets good treatment.

Second, sounds like it's the idiot coworker and that first manager you should be looking for legal action against. Those two should be fired for negligence.

This is not something you should publicly seek advice about on a message board. You could be revealing information that undermines any legal claims you might have (to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you've done that in this post). Consult an attorney with expertise in this area. And do it privately, under the protection of attorney-client privilege. In fact, I recommend you email the mods and ask that this thread be deleted immediately. 

What I know about lawyers:

-Hope you never need one, but if you do, hire the expensive one.

Obviously, as everyone has mentioned, document everything. With that said, what matters the most is that she receives the care she needs and that she recovers completely. Secondarily, issues that led to the injury need to be addressed. While I've seen some comments to litigate, the question becomes to litigate for what? If there are no permanent injuries, her care is completely covered, and her time off work is completely compensated then it may not be worth your trouble. It certainly does not hurt to retain a lawyer with expertise in this area, but I would suggest first talking to the doctors about her prognosis and whether there will be any permanent injury or disfigurement.

This is not advice and I'm just a dude on a forum, not a lawyer, especially not an employment/worker's comp attorney. Any advice you receive here is not likely to help much because there are so very many different things that come into play that could impact how this turns out, from your wife's time on the job, to the specific state, to how/when she was trained, to if anyone had complained to management about the employee's work conduct, what management had done, what the evidence (statements) and then of course later testimony of witnesses after the fact state, what the medical paperwork states at the ER, your wife's employers financial situation/workers compensation rates, what their attorneys recommend, and anything and everything your wife either says to them or they relate that she said to them going forward, and most importantly (probably), your wife's recovery. Facial burns can be extremely expensive to fix, and the last thing I personally would want to do would be to try to rely on simply insurance. It's possible that doing nothing would be the surest way to your wife losing her medical coverage. 

A couple of comments, generally speaking, that may or may not be something to consider. If you speak to an attorney in your state who tells you they specialize in something like this, they should at least be able to give you good answers or suggestions here. 

Depending on your state laws for two party consent/recording, many people will record every phone conversation with the company after something like this. It isn't to trap the company into anything, it is simply so that if they allege your wife says something on the phone that she does not in fact say, you have some safety. Employers will sometimes raise a claim of employee misconduct. Your wife (heaven forbid) could have been killed, and had the employer been able to show evidence that your wife was trained, knew the procedure, violated the procedure, and that it has enforced these procedures with strict management oversight. Were that the case OSHA might not be able to even cite them. That's different than any claim you could bring. Bringing a claim against the employee might be difficult. Not considering your options may embolden the company to believe it has a valid claim for employee misconduct and that it needs to terminate your wife's employment. A good point made earlier was to not speak to the employer, even over the phone, until you have had a chance to talk to people. If they pester your wife, note it.

Given your wife works for a large company, they likely have very strict safety training procedures. It's not likely that the other employee is going to admit culpability for the accident. They also have a labor attorney firm that represents them in matters such as this and they have been on the ground since the afternoon of the accident taking statements from employees or figuring out who is a good witness, etc. They are trying to assess the situation and limit the liabilities of the company. Your wife is a potential liability as much as she is a resource as a worker, right now. 

Workers comp claims are usually the way medical bills for these types of injuries are paid. It's a specialized area of law. Attorneys do not dabble in workers compensation, they either do it or they are going to miss some things. 

Keep in mind most states are at will employment. They can fire your wife if they can show she engaged in employee misconduct (or that other employee). I don't mean to scare you but rather give you good information. It was erroneously stated that your attorney will protect your wife from getting fired. Were that the case OSHA would not investigate thousands of wrongful termination claims each year, many for reporting injuries (that's a guestimate), and many more wrongful termination claims are brought in state court (state depending), usually by workers comp attorneys or whomever. If something horrible like that happens, lets say the company is trying to keep workers comp rates down, your wife only has 30 days from the date on which she is notified of any pending action against her (suspension pending investigation, termination of employment, written warnings), to file a complaint of retaliation with OSHA. Whistleblowers.gov is a resource you could read up on there. This could also go sideways if they say she isn't employable anymore. I have no idea. 

Have your wife write down who she spoke to and exactly what she said, sort of what you wrote in the OP. She can use this to refresh her memory later, and it can be extremely useful. You could even type it up and save it for her. If she has contact information for any other employees, you might call them to see what is being said, or if the guy is on facebook see if he wrote any idiotic things after the fact (you would be surprised how often this is the case and how slow many fortune 500 companies are to monitor key employees after events like this). It's also likely that other employees will say something on social media like "(whatever the employees name was) is such a rude, unsafe guy, I can't believe he hasn't killed anyone yet" or "they talk about safety but never enforce things until there is an accident". Anything like that could be useful especially if the employer is considering raising an employee misconduct defense against your wife. Save everything.

Even if the company presents the best possible foot forward and explicitly guarantees that she has a job whenever, lets say a raise, and all her medical bills paid, no exceptions, they are going to put it in a settlement and release of claims that is going to be something your wife really shouldn't sign without presenting to an attorney she trusts first. Long story short, this isn't a situation for Mgoblog, but I really hope it works out for your family. 

I'm not a lawyer. I am a doctor. I am sorry your girlfriend was injured, but.... Was she trained on the use of the oven? Why was her face that close to it when she opened it? "Burn gel" is topical lidocaine for relieving the pain AFTER a burn. Teaching point: If you get burned, immediately poor cold water on it to dissipate the heat and limit the thermal injury. By about 15 seconds, the tissue damage is done. She should have gone to the sink and stuck her face in cold water, rather than run around looking for a first aid kit. Burn gel wasn't available because it isn't useful for first aid.

The ER was a good place to start for her to be evaluated. I hope she had early follow-up with someone experienced in burn care, like a plastic surgeon or a trauma surgeon. If it was only a superficial burn, it will heal fine. If partial- or full-thickness, it could be more of a problem, and you can't always tell how deep the injury is immediately after it occurs. 

The most important thing for her recovery is you can’t use enough silver sulfidizene, and or neosporine.   You can’t overuse moist wound healing.  Keep it wet and apply often.  It’s the best chance to reduce scarring. 

Have you had contact from the firms HR office. Many times this can be handled internally and the co-worker gets it’s just due as well.

Whatever you do, don't trust HR.  A majority of HR employees in the world are buttholes