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Profile: Steve Shisler
To Steve Shisler, a Philadelphia-based attorney, the recent
enactment of the Social Security ruling on CRPS is a major
victory for people with the syndrome. Shisler has navigated
the social security system both as a patient and as a lawyer;
he also has worked with RSDSA to craft the language for the
ruling and went to Washington to promote it. He believes the
new ruling will certainly make a difference for people with
CRPS.
The ruling establishes a basis for "medically determinable
impairment," by providing diagnostic criteria and treatment
guidelines, and although this doesn't assure that anyone with
CRPS will sail through the system, it makes it easier
to get through the first door." At least we can establish
CRPS as an accepted impairment." The next step
is to show the limitations caused by impairment and the disability
caused.
That Shisler would become an attorney who specializes in
personal injury and disability was fated when he was simultaneously
introduced to CRPS and the legal system. He developed
CRPS in 1973 after a car collided with his motorcycle. Luckily,
he was diagnosed almost immediately after onset. He went through
a series of stellate ganglion blocks (32 of them), a six-month
course of narcotics, and intensive physical therapy. His left
arm was paralyzed as a result of a brachial plexus injury,
but a fusion of the shoulder eliminated the source of the
problem and, as a result, the pain lessened.
He was 20 years old and had just finished his sophomore year
in college. Because of his injury, he took an extra year to
finish his degree. Shisler was financially self-supporting
in college, so his initial experience with the law, particularly
personal injury and disability, was that of being repeatedly
denied Social Security benefits. The young Shisler represented
himself, a tactic he certainly would not recommend to patients
today. "I'm surprised that I won," he says. His
experience also alerted him to the realities of people challenging
insurance companies for benefits. Steve's motorcycle was hit
by a driver who ran a stop sign; still when it came to litigation
for benefits, the law favored the driver's insurance company.
His experience directed him toward a legal career.
It is this same battle that he sees over and over again when CRPS patients file for benefits or recovery. "The
amount of governmental control that wealthy insurance companies
have is incredible. The lobbyists for insurance companies
influence lawmakers to create the laws favorable to carriers.
In Pennsylvania I see repeated denials of workers' compensation
claims for reasonable and necessary medical care. The workers
compensation remedies for people with CRPS are limited.
If a hospital requires pre-approval before a pump or spinal
cord stimulator can be implanted, why should a carrier balk
at approving it in a timely matter? We all know that early
diagnosis and treatment is essential to any level of recovery.
I would also like to see negative incentives for insurance
companies -take away their immunity-and make the workers'
compensation carriers liable for litigation for insurance
bad faith."
Regarding workers compensation issues, he stresses that anyone
injured at work cannot sue the employer. He emphasized, "regardless
of where you are injured, the legal requirement that a patient
use company-selected physicians is a nightmare. The physician
is given incentives to avoid diagnoses of syndromes like CRPS.
This again reduces the opportunity for early treatment."
What can the CRPS community do? "Public awareness would
help. We need to educate the community at large-these are
our potential jury pools. More times than not, juries think
of injuries in linear fashion and can't grasp the concept
that CRPS could jump from one limb to the other without
affecting the parts of the body in between. We also need to
educate judges."
In addition to his advocacy and participation in the Social
Security Ruling, Shisler has contributed some excellent articles
to the RSDSA Review. He is active in the Association of Trial
Lawyers of America CRPS litigation group. Members of this
national organization of plaintiff's attorneys hold seminars
to discuss CRPS case strategies, discuss experts, and
provide updated medical information. Shisler has also moderated
several CME courses and appeared on television regarding CRPS
issues.
Also he still has CRPS, the pain associated with it has reduced
to a level where it is manageable with ibuprofen or other
over the counter therapies. "I'm one of the lucky ones,
" he says. |
