Zenith Insurance's Blatant Corruption
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So what is the first story? Briefly stated, quite a few nameless people have suffered greatly at the hands of the claims workers in the Fresno, California office. These torturers include Ron Riley, Shirley Parker, Gwen Stout, and several others. A judge, several lawyers and some treating doctors have privately stated they are known as the wicked witches of the West. They are so vile, rude and downright mean in their actions, few can be compared to them outside Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin. Needless to say, Zenith proudly rewards such behavior among their clerks and offers big bonuses and promotions for being cruel.
Now back to the beginning. On November 9, 1990, Clinton Macomber was heading to work as a semi truck driver and loader. He had been working 16 hour days and commuting almost an hour each way to and from work. He was very sick, and suffering from a severe lack of sleep. Being November, the work was day and night in the pouring rain. There was no chance to get dried out during the day, or get out of the worst downpours. It was hard active work. Clinton was the trainer of new drivers, and distinguished himself as an unusually capable driver.
Before Clinton could begin his shift at midnight on that Friday night, he had to make sure the truck was emptied by the previous driver. But there was a large almond tree stump stuck in the back of the trailer. Clinton and the driver going off shift tried to raise a forklift driver to come help, but no one would respond. In fact the dump yard seemed to be abandoned. There was no one anywhere that could be found. The other driver wanted to go off shift, being very tired and wanting to do home. The two drivers tried to push the stump out of the back of the trailer and used the ram, trying several ideas, but nothing would budge the monster stump. Finally they got under the stump and were looking up at it, pushing on it, when it decided to come down.
Clinton was in a real predicament. He tried to hold the stump onto the trailer so the other driver could get away, but was not very successful, because it kept coming on down. On trying to get away, his feet were caught in knee deep brush and branches. He was stuck, and so violently yanked at his legs to free them, getting his right leg free, but not his left. He cannot remember what happened, only remembering the panic of it coming down and twisting around and around trying to find a way for his foot to come free. When he “came to” later, he was laying face down in the dirt several feet from the trailer, and felt horribly sick. His leg was all scraped up and he felt them to see if they were there, since they felt like they were pointing in the wrong directions. The other driver, Jerry, started yelling for Clinton to get up. Jerry helped, but it was really difficult, and Clinton could only stand on his right leg. The left was just too painful. But standing there was really awful. He leaned on the semi trailer, but was afraid if he sat, he would not get up again.
Jerry ran off to find someone to help get Clinton to the hospital. He was back soon with a gulf cart. Clinton was loaded in someone’s car and taken to the foreman’s house. The ride was excruciating. The foreman took him to the hospital. But this was just the beginning of troubles for Clinton. It was the early mornings of Saturday, and there had been a shooting. The hospital was a small town hospital (Turlock) and doing all they could to try to deal with the wounded. Clinton was left to lay there until they could get to him. Finally they tried to get approval to do x-rays, but were only allowed one set! They decided to use their limited approval to take an ankle x-ray. Clinton however hurt badly from head to toe and had lots of scrapes on his legs. The x-rays did not show anything! So, they sent him home. On pointing out to the doctor that Clinton could not walk, the doctor told Clinton to contact his family doctor on Monday to see if he could get some help.
Clinton was unable to walk at all, and could only stand on his right leg, and that was extremely painful. His dad had to almost carry him into the house. Clinton found he could not even crawl, so taking care of body functions was a real problem.
On Monday the family doctor saw Clinton. He tried to get approval from Zenith to do more x-rays, but was denied. They simply refused to let them be done. Finally the doctor was permitted to take one x-ray on his own antiquated machine. The room was used for storage, since they had no use for the machine. It had to be cleaned out of supplies and plugged in, etc. The one x-ray almost missed the diagonal break of the left leg bone just below the knee. The leg was wrapped and Clinton was told to say off it for 6-8 weeks, but no further treatment was allowed, and no other doctors were approved for treatment, or a second opinion.
It took three years before Clinton went to U.C. Davis medical center on his own, against the threats of Zenith insurance to see what was wrong and why it was so painful to walk, and why the pain was so severe. They had figured out the problem before Clinton arrived for an appointment, just by hearing the story of when the accident happened and seeing the x-rays that had been done. The leg bone broke from being twisted a full 360 degrees around and then hit by the falling stump. The leg broke and the tendons and ligaments were stripped out. With all that gone, there was nothing holding the bones in place afterwards, although some of the muscles did grow back, the joint was unstable. But since it had taken so long before this was discovered, there was little they could do. Once a judge heard the story he was really angry at Zenith and ordered immediate treatment. However, Zenith still did all they could to try to stop everything. They even went so far as to have a clerk meet with the U.C. Davis doctors before and after each appointment with Clinton, to try to dissuade them from treating. Needless to say the doctors were very conservative with all this pressure, and afraid to treat, hearing some awful threats and stories about Clinton.
Surgery was done, and one left leg bone was totally detached, and just flopping around under the skin. They took a ligament from the big toe and used it to try to encourage ligaments to hold the bone in place. It looked like things were going to get better, but they did not. Clinton continues to suffer a high level of constant pain, and developed a nervous system disorder as a result of the injury.
It has been 8 years now, since moving to Redding, and Clinton continues to be saddled with Zenith and refused medical treatment at any cost. Not only do they refuse to allow Clinton to see an anesthesiologist to try to lower the pain levels, but they will not cover court ordered therapy, or court ordered medicines. The one treating physician he is allowed to see has his hands tied, because treatments are always denied.
So what is to happen? Unless we who are suffering come together and find a voice our numbers are just going to increase, and many more of us are going to commit suicide, as the mobster controlled system hopes. Let’s fight back!