A support worker who was injured when a 190kg man fell on her has been awarded a $332,189 WorkCover payout. Therese Gai McCormack, 50, suffered a painful shoulder injury that required surgery and took her former employer Former Ethnic Community Care Links Inc to court for negligence. Townsville District Court judge Stuart Durward published a judgment in favour of Ms McCormack. Ms McCormack went to the at Ayr Hospital in June 2011 to meet the man for his dental appointment. When she arrived, the “grossly obese man” was lying face down in a maxi taxi with his legs halfway out. “The plaintiff said she got into the maxi-taxi through the wheelchair access entry in order to comfort (the man) and knelt on the floor in front of (him) at his head,” the judgment read. Two hospital orderlies came out to assist, pulling his arms back in an attempt to lift him but the man either slipped or the orderlies dropped him and Ms McCormack’s right shoulder was forced into the metal leg of a seat. The judge assessed Ms McCormack’s future loss of earnings to be $400 a week for 12 years, totalling more than $170,000. Her past economic loss was calculated to be $121,028.
