He sat on the grass, tore his knee ligament - and received hundreds of thousands of shekels

March 21, 2022   

A 43-year-old Ashdod resident, a civilian IDF employee who serves as an electrician, arranged to meet with his friends for lunch every weekday - on the manicured lawn near the building where he serves at the Tzirifin base. Suffering from a medical problem? Maybe you deserve to receive 6,400 NIS each month But as he bent over and sat down as usual in a Mizrahi yeshiva, the electrician suddenly felt intense pain, and a cry escaped his mouth. From that moment on, the man could not step on his leg, and his friends were forced to take him to the hospital in their car. At the hospital, it turned out that one of the ligaments in his knee had torn, and he was rushed to surgery under full anesthesia. After recovering from the surgery, the electrician turned to attorneys Dvir Shmaya and Michael Mirel, who filed a claim on his behalf with the National Insurance Institute (NII) so that it would recognize him as a work-related injury. According to attorneys Shmaya and Mirel, in recent years, due to changes in the law for compensation for victims of the defense system, all permanent and civilian IDF employees are referred to the National Insurance Institute when they are injured during their service. According to them, in a case like the one that befell the poor electrician, there is a need to prove that the injury was caused during and due to work, which is not at all easy when it comes to an orthopedic injury that on the surface appears to be completely spontaneous. Despite this, and after quite a bit of reasoning and persuasion, the National Security Council was able to recognize the case as a work accident. A medical committee appointed to determine the electrician's disability determined that in the period following the accident he suffered temporary disabilities at a rate of 301% for four months, and 201% for an additional four months. The committee also determined that from that time on, the electrician began to suffer permanent and permanent orthopedic disability at a rate of 101%. According to attorneys Shmaiya and Mirel, in the coming days the National Insurance Institute will transfer tens of thousands of shekels to the electrician's account, retroactive compensation for the temporary disabilities he suffered from from the time the claim was filed until today. In addition, the electrician will receive one-time compensation from the National Health Insurance Fund, which is expected to amount to over 100,000 shekels. At the same time, Attorneys Shmaiya and Mirel filed a lawsuit against the Migdal insurance company, which insures the electrician with personal accident insurance, and according to them, in view of his disability, he will receive tens of thousands of shekels more for this policy as well. According to Attorneys Shmaiya and Mirel, in addition to compensation, the National Health Insurance Fund's recognition of the plaintiff as a work injury is of great importance, as this recognition now grants him full exemption from payment for medications in the health insurance fund intended for the treatment of his knee, as well as full exemption from payment for visits to doctors and for medical equipment related to the injury to his knee. In addition, in any future worsening of the plaintiff's condition, as a result of his knee disability, the plaintiff will be entitled to apply again to the National Insurance Institute and demand that it also recognize the worsening of his condition - and thus be entitled to substantial benefits and even a fixed monthly benefit. "In any case," say attorneys Shmaya and Mirel, "our firm is not satisfied with determining the electrician's degree of disability, and we are working to file an appeal against the decision of the National Insurance Medical Committee in the coming weeks.".