The Florida legislature made changes in Workers Compensation to focus "ONLY" on cutting costs in Workers Compensation due to fraudulent claims. They allowed the medical decisions for the injured to be the choice of the employer, "even for the catastrophically injured". My son is one that was catastrophically injured at a CVS pharmacy during a robbery just after working a full shift at his primary job in a Tampa Data Center.

Workers being classified in the various levels of injury with catastrophically injured victims being the highest are treated in the same manner as a person spraining their ankle. State Workers Compensation Laws are only specifications on how the Insurance Companies can treat workers. CVS happens to be large enough company to be self insured and they hired a company to ensure they pay the smallest amount for this problem to not effect their stock holders. Being that Florida legislatures changed these laws with only the insurance companies in mind, they allowed insurance companies and companies such as CVS to make a change of doctor at anytime they want without any decision by the employee.

My son was shot once in the right leg causing massive blood loss and once in the right chest cavity trajecting a 9 mm bullet from the upper part of his chest to the left buttock, a planned kill shot for not opening a cash register quick enough. The second bullet went through Sam's Liver, Small Intestines, Large Intestines, Colon, and left buttock which ended up causing Femoral Nerve damage. Needless to say, Sam was catastrophically injured according to the surgeon who worked on him for 5 hours to save his life. The bullet is still in his body. My son has been thrown away like trash by state legislators in Florida and CVS/Caremark Corporation. My son Sam lives in constant pain and unable to walk from this shooting to this day.

This all began on November 29, 2008 in Tampa. We have been fighting, fighting, and fighting for health coverage since this issue. Immediately after being released from a long hospital stay in a wheel chair and uncontrollable pain, the doctor was changed without notice. We fought to have surgery to lessen the pain. What I tell you here is something that is a fact and a hidden fact at that.

I have fought for a change in law for the catastrophically injured, but the Insurance Lobbyist in Florida can sway the 160 Legislators to hear a different tune.

Still on the same medication since being in the hospital 4 years ago, with uncontrollable pain living from a wheelchair, CVS found a doctor that lives in Florida 6 months a year and Hawaii 6 months a year willing to testify that my son is well and can walk??? And that is what CVS and this crazy doctor did. I'm sure this man was willing to put his license on the line for a big payday! My son has been turned away from Physical Therapist because of the pain. Things like simple nerve blocks haven't been done because it costs CVS money.

SAM'S CASE IS CONSIDERED DONE AND HE SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR A JOB AS OF JUNE 2012. A JOB WHERE HE CAN USE HIS FEET! FLORIDA LEGISLATORS TURN THEIR HEAD.

Money buys anything, even laws to insure that the Florida government will do anything for the highest bidder! This is not the same country anymore. I've spoken to too many Legislators over the past 4 years through two elections to see this.
What CVS has done with power and money should make every American vomit for what corporate greed has done to this young man!
STATE REPRESENTATIVE ED HOOPER EXPOSED

An amendment earlier this year was introduced but failed to get support from state legislators. Please contact your State Senator and State Representative to change Florida's law for those classified as catastrophically injured at work to be able to choose their own health provider at any time for people like Sam.

Click here to find your current State Senator/State Representative

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Something you can never imagine...

You're reading this because one night my son called from work and said in a quiet tired voice,
"Pops I've been SHOT, I Love You!"

Sam had just finished working his full time second shift job and suddenly he was brutally shot two times just after starting his shift at CVS during a robbery. Sam is bound in a wheelchair now and struggles daily with pain. The rest is the worst of the story.

You won't believe this one!

CVS used a terrible tragedy just 10 months after Sam was shot to try and stop this website.

Sam was in a convalescent home, while our home was being retrofitted for Sam's wheelchair. I suggested that my wife Maria visit her sister in Erie, PA as she needed a break, and Sam was being taken care of. A few days after being in Erie, I received a call at 11:00 at night from an ER doctor in Erie, PA. Maria was unresponsive and on "Life Support" and the doctor said she had very little time to live. She was dying of what many have heard as the Flesh Eating Disease.

My wife was on life support, swollen beyond recognition, and flesh rotting from her body. CVS contacted Sam while I was at my wife's side in Erie, PA and threatened him. CVS threatened to make it harder for Sam if I didn't stop trying to change the workers compensation law. As I was asking all for prayer on Facebook at a time that 3 doctors told me to plan a funeral for Maria. This when they contacted Sam. She was dying and they made use of this time due to our vulnerability.

Her body was rotting as you can see below.

A CVS representative thought that would be a good vulnerable time to get the family to stop online information about their dark closet of what kind of problems Sam had with them!

A letter was written and excerpts from that letter is shown below along with my Facebook request for prayer.

Being brutally shot at work, the state of Florida allows companies like CVS to treat Sam how they want. It is time to change the law for those catastrophically injured at work. CVS limits Sam's access to doctor's, has made Sam wait months for surgery, all because lawmakers have allowed this through changes in law. CVS has changed Sam's doctor THREE times for their benefit while my son struggles for each breathe of air in pain. Sleepless nights taking pain killers and just left in the dark is just plain wrong!

Watch the videos below, the first YOUTUBE video I made is about Sam's shooting and trying to get CVS to pay for surgery. They sent him home without wheelchair access. Sam lives from a wheelchair from the shooting and in the same pain as he was when he was shot. Another sad part is that only CVS can do more for him legally, and believe me, they won't!

St Petersburg Time Aug 7, 2011

YOUTUBE of Sam's Injury

At War With Worker's Comp

Change These Laws

In a meeting with my State Representative, Ed Hooper, 0n June 1st, 2009 I asked why he voted to make Workers Comp worse when he knew as a Fire Chief in his previous career that this affected the catastrophically injured like Sam? Across from his desk he told me that Larry Cretul, former Speaker of the House from Ocala had called him and told him that any bill he tries to pass will not make it out of the committee if he didn't vote the way he did for the Workers Comp bill. Then, as God as my witness, he said Larry Cretul received $8,000,000.00 privately for making people like Sam suffer.

I took this information and went to the Ethics Committee in 2010 after contacting the Attorney General and then the Governor. Larry Cretul and Ed Hooper were called to the Ethics Committee meeting in Tallahassee. Larry Cretul denied this and Ed Hooper denied the conversation. How can anyone make people like Sam go through this for their personal gain and still receive part of my earnings in taxes as I watch my son suffer?

On Monday September 24th, 2012 I was standing with cadidate Ben Farrell after the Suncoast League of Cities candidate forum was wrapping up. Ed Hooper walked up to introduce himself to Ben Farrell. After shaking hands with Mr Farrell, Ed Hooper turned to me, smiled and extended his hand. I shook hands with him, looked him in the eye and said, we've met before, my name is Gene McGinnis. The face I saw was something of fear and "what and I am going to do now". He looked down and said something about making mistakes. He then asked how my son is doing. I told him he is worse than the day he was shot. His character changed and he said in looking at Ben Farrell, you're only doing PR with this. Hooper gave a strange nervous laugh and said nothing would change this law, saying that the Speaker of the House would never let it occur. Ed Hooper said to Ben Farrell, what are you trying to do, be a nice guy like Mike Fasano, where did it get him? I stopped him and said that Senator Fasano is one of the finest people I know. I went on to tell him that after responding to a message by Senator Fasano on something that occurred in the news. He contacted me and gave me his personal cell phone number in case I needed help.

Senator Mike Fasano and Representative Richard Corcoran tried to change workers compensation law for the catastrophically injured last session, (2012) but the legislators wouldn't budge for this change.

FOLKS, intelligent people know that if you fall from a 10 story building or shot twice like my son and still alive, this is not a fake accident. People injured like this are clarified by the state of Florida as catastrophically injured and are grouped as such when the injury occurs. Below you will see what politicians have done to make people like Sam be in the situation he is now:

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"The employer can change your doctor at will"
(I wonder who they would choose)

"The injured has a ONE TIME LIFETIME change of doctor"

"Only a handful of doctors can be used"

"If you need an operation, it must be approved by the employer before it occurs"
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Only our Florida state lawmakers can fix this, they created it. The state of Florida sat back when Sam had no access to a toilet. They sat back when surgery was needed to see if the pain could be resolved so I created a video to make the public aware, (he had the surgery but to no avail). Many catastrophically injured people kill themselves because of their treatment. Please contact your law maker - I am a father doing what a father should do, do what you should do as a citizen and contact your politicians! I'll help you, contact me at gene.mcginnis@gmail.com

There is a simple fix to this problem folks. Catastrophically injured workers need help as their injuries take their voice. Florida politicians need to change workers comp to have a "TWO TIER SYSTEM". If you are "CATASTROPHICALLY" injured, open the resources of the medical community for help. Watch the video and the local FOX news story below. This could be your child, spouse, or YOU!

"BECAUSE ITS WRONG"

Sam is going to need another surgery or procedure as new procedures become available. Right now he is denied therapy written by doctors as a prescription to help.
At a convenience store in Pennsylvania I saw a donation jar to help a young man go to California to have stem cell surgery. If I did this for my son, he would lose the rest of his insurance for the rest of his life.

St Petersburg Time Aug 7, 2011

YOUTUBE of Sam's Injury

YOUTUBE from Local High School Student

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