Location: Illinois.
I am a 17 year old girl who started her summer job. My first month on the job I got hurt.
Incident + Backstory : We had just gotten a truck to stock our freezer and morning shift stacked 7 boxes weighing roughly 30 - 50 pounds each in front of the blizzard mix-ins. I work closing shift meaning we are responsible for stocking for the next morning. While finishing filling toppings between 10:00 - 10:20 pm the boxes fell on my back. I initially felt fine but still told our shift lead about what had occurred. I worked the next couple days and felt perfectly fine. When Saturday came around I started to notice a pain in my back. I didn't think much of it but when Sunday arrived I couldn't get out of bed. It felt like I was getting stabbed and I called into work roughly 4 hours before coming in and even shooting a text to the manager that I would not be in and informed her it was from the incident at work.
Conflict # 1 : it was Fathers Day and a Sunday. My parents attempted to go to the ER and was left sitting there for hours without being seen. Eventually my parents said they'd take me to urgent care the next morning. When we went to initially go into urgent care they refused to see me because I needed workmens comp information for them to put file the case. I called my manager and she told me "I don't know" and hung up. Eventually after hours of me crying my parents took me to an urgent care inside the town I worked at (roughly 9 miles away). The hospital told us they cannot make a workmens comp case without information and my manager didn't give me the information needed. I'm aware I can do it online but it would have taken weeks for it to come in. I couldn't get a doctor's note to excuse my injury without the workplace information. Not to mention I asked the manager multiple times for help and was left on delivered.
I get checked and receive X-Rays and it turns out I had severe trauma to my back muscles, I had a severe sprained back. I was prescribed medication for a week. My parents used their insurance momentarily as they were under the impression we'd get the information soon to switch it. I text my manager during the week saying by Sunday I'll be able to start work again after she had canceled my whole week of work before I even seen a doctor. When I go to check this Sunday to see the schedule, still under the impression I was to work I see I'm kicked out of the organization breakroom. Confused I then again message my manager asking if something is wrong with the app.
Second conflict : The manager shortly after me sending that message calls my phone and I answer. She begins by saying I will not be on the schedule anymore because I'm fired. I'm stunned because I never received any news of me losing my job. She says that since I didn't bring in the note , that I couldn't get because I didn't have the information to and stressed that multiple times in messages plus I was bed ridden and unable to drive due to the medication (which I told the manager). My parents work midnights, during the week and were sleeping during the time she was wanting it. She begins to paint this picture that I lied about the injury, saying she interviewed everyone on shift and nobody recalls the boxes being organized that way, and how I "didn't attempt" to contact the manager. She straight up told me "what did you expect". I was upset and asked my mother to take the phone. The manager begins to get rude when my mom starts questioning where was the information for workmens comp to get a doctor note. You can imagine how my mom reacts to hearing she's responsible for a 3 thousand dollar medical bill after we just got out of medical debt for my father's heart attack. We never received any information, I was left on delivered, I have screenshots and call logs to back it up as well as exact time it happened. Do I have a case? Is it illegal to withhold information to file for workmens comp and get fired because you got hurt on the job? I come from a poor, blue collar family so I shall find another job again but this whole thing left us in debt , and my mom stressed she doesn't want to go into more debt trying to sue if we don't have a case. If you have any advice or input please comment down below and be brutally honest!! I may I have butchered the legal part of this but if anybody has any management experience under their belt is this legal?