Safety Knights

Personal Health event question

Most recently we have two employees who both suffer from seizures. One is a custodian and the other operates a CMV. Both have had seizures on duty. Luckily no one was injured and none have led to an incident (personal injury or equipment damage). I am writing this to see what the rest of our safety community thinks is the right course of action.

As I know a thing or two about seizures, they would need to see a neurologist and have a sleep-deprived EEG done to see if they are diagnosed as epileptic or if they just have epileptic tendencies. Also, they would do blood tests. After meeting with the neurologist, and going over the blood tests and EEG results, the neurologist would more than likely prescribe the employee a medication to try to prevent or lessen the severity of their seizures.

Now this is where if you work in HR, you can move on to the next post. Okay, do I have only my Safety Professionals still here? Okay, let me ask my questions and offer some statements.

So if HR is knowingly not following the guidelines for dealing with an employee post seizure, what do we do as Safety Professionals? I have shared the following guidelines with them but they kind of made up their own rule that if the employee is seizure-free for 3 months, then they can go back to driving. This is a clear violation of the guidelines. So how do you handle this as a Safety Professional?

The Guidelines state:

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, a CMV operator who experiences a seizure must be seizure-free for at least five years before they can drive again, especially if the seizure was a single unprovoked event; this period may include being off any anti-seizure medication as well.

Now let's talk about liability, ownership, and accommodations. If HR follows its own guidelines, then this means the employee would be on "light duty" for three months. Having this employee on light duty for 3 months means that the division will be short one person. Not to mention, that Department does not have any light duty work. HR will not allow the manager to hire another employee to pick up the slack. In talking to the Manager of the employee, when HR told him to allow him to drive the stress level that the Manager was under was substantial.

But now, the employee was seizure-free for 3 months, so HR said it was safe for him to drive again. Unfortunately, on his 92nd day, he had another seizure. So let's talk liability for a minute. What would have happened if that person ran over someone, crashed into another vehicle, or worse yet, crashed into a home or business killing someone? I imagine the lawyer would have a field day when they found out the employee had a seizure and we allowed him to drive.

Additionally, how could you (as HR or the Manager) handle the situation when you have heard the employee is not following his doctor's recommendations using a CPAP machine at night, taking his medication, and carrying his inhaler with him at all times? How could you address an employee's personal health care without crossing the line?

I welcome all comments and feedback. How would you handle the situation?