Proud Garberville worker's
ordeal ends in suicide By Mary Fricker
Press Democrat staff writer
In the first cold hours of New Year's Day 1994, Ray Blankenship, father of five, sat alone on his dark Garberville back porch, put a .22-caliber Magnum derringer loaded with birdshot to his head and pulled the trigger.
He was still alive when Beverly, his wife of 39 years, found him at 7 a.m. He died at 4:22 p.m.
New Year's Day, so full of hope for many, held no hope at all for Ray Blankenship, 57.
Blankenship was an injured worker, in too much pain to face another year of fighting his injury and the workers compensation system, according to his family.
Blankenship's ordeal began June 16, 1989. A Caltrans equipment operator working in the Garberville area, he was getting out of a small dump truck when his bucket seat tipped forward and dumped him on the floor. He landed on his tailbone on the edge of the door frame.
Three years of intermittent sick leave and worsening back, neck and leg pain followed. On Aug. 4, 1992, he could work no more.
By the end of each day, "the pain is excruciating and unbearable," he told San Francisco orthopaedic surgeon Ken Y. Hsu.
The workers compensation insurance company for Caltrans, State Compensation Insurance Fund, paid for Blankenship's medical care and started him on a monthly temporary disability stipend.
Blankenship was shocked to see how small it was.
He had been earning $3,600 a month, including overtime. Under workers compensation law, the most an injured worker could be paid was $1,344 a month (since raised to $1,960).
"This is quite a severe drop in monthly income and one in which I am unable to cope with," he wrote to his attorney.
Since he could no longer work, Blankenship wrote that he hoped for a "fair settlement" from State Fund, "after giving 21 years of faithful service to the State of California."
He estimated he was losing between $200,000 and $218,000 by not being able to work until age 65.
Over 15 months, State Compensation Insurance Fund sent him to several doctors, frequently failed to return his telephone calls and deposed his doctor for three hours. State Fund officials declined to discuss the case publicly.
Devastated financially, the Blankenships had to move out of their home and into a mobile home next door, where Beverly's invalid father's lived.
"I saw him sitting at the kitchen table crying. ... I saw a very proud man being defiled,'' his daughter Becky said.
Blankenship had surgery in March 1993, but his pain continued and got worse. His surgeon said a second surgery was necessary. State Fund's doctor disagreed.
Blankenship held out hope that he would get a settlement from State Fund of nearly $100,000. A state expert had concluded he was 91 percent disabled, and in workers compensation law, 91 percent was worth $148 a week for 12 years -- or $91,094 -- plus a small lifetime pension and future medical care.
In early December, State Fund offered him $40,000.
On New Year's Day, Blankenship took his life.
At State Fund's request, the coroner examined Blankenship's hands for calluses, suggesting that State Fund was trying to learn if Blankenship had been working. Blankenship's family was distraught.
No calluses were found.
State Fund also requested an autopsy, but the coroner refused.
Families of injured workers who commit suicide are entitled to a death benefit -- $95,000 in Blankenship's case -- if they can prove that the suicide was directly caused by the work injury. So Blankenship's attorney filed on Beverly's behalf.
State Fund disputed that the death was related to the injury but offered $49,000 (less $5,900 for Beverly's attorney) as a compromise.
Beverly took it, after her attorney warned that State Fund would investigate the family to look for other possible reasons for the suicide.
©1997 The Press Democrat
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