{"id":525009,"date":"2026-01-18T11:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/525009\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:26:19","slug":"city-benefits-administrator-approves-firefighters-treatment-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/525009\/","title":{"rendered":"City benefits administrator approves firefighter\u2019s treatment after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The worker\u2019s compensation company used by the City of Fort Worth will pay for an injured firefighter\u2019s surgeries and medical devices, the firefighter said Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The company\u2019s reversal comes after widespread backlash from government officials and the public. City council member Charles Lauersdorf <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/charles.lauersdorf\/posts\/25300196176317687?ref=embed_post\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ripped into the company;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">ripped into the company<\/a> on social media Thursday night, saying he was \u201cdeclaring war\u201d on it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cFort Worth doesn\u2019t abandon the people who run toward danger,\u201d Lauersdorf wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The firefighter, Caleb Halvorson, was severely burned in September when the roof of a house <a href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/fort-worth\/article311958355.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:collapsed on top of him.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">collapsed on top of him.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Halvorson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/news\/local\/fort-worth\/article312409886.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:spent 34 days in the intensive care unit;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">spent 34 days in the intensive care unit<\/a> at Dallas\u2019 Parkland Hospital, being treated for second- and third-degree burns, a dislocated knee and other injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The city\u2019s worker\u2019s compensation program initially denied coverage of a machine meant to aid in the recovery of Halvorson\u2019s knee, and of laser surgeries to help with burn healing, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWith tears and heartfelt gratitude, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has been showing love and incredible support through this very difficult time in mine and my family\u2019s lives,\u201d Halvorson wrote on Facebook. \u201dThank you to the people who have offered help to step up to get me the supplies I need for recovery. Thank you for passionately fighting for me and with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State Representative Jared Patterson said in a statement, \u201cIf not for the public post on Facebook and subsequent outrage by the public, it is likely that Caleb would not have received the care he needed. Legislators and members of the public will be watching to ensure that [the worker\u2019s comp provider] follows through \u2026 with continued care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Texas state firefighters\u2019 union wrote on Facebook, \u201cWe\u2019ve worked with Texas legislators to improve the system and denials are far less common now, but cases like that of seriously injured Fort Worth firefighter Caleb Halvorson remain infuriating. We\u2019ll keep working until the system does not ever require community outrage for approval of proper treatment of line-of-duty injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The worker\u2019s compensation company used by the City of Fort Worth will pay for an injured firefighter\u2019s surgeries&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":525010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,233267,35749,233269,42631,233270,1066,12768,7371,7372,233268,71434,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,49489],"class_list":{"0":"post-525009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-caleb-halvorson","10":"tag-charles-lauersdorf","11":"tag-city-council-member","12":"tag-city-of-fort-worth","13":"tag-dislocated-knee","14":"tag-facebook","15":"tag-firefighter","16":"tag-fort-worth","17":"tag-fortworth","18":"tag-laser-surgeries","19":"tag-medical-devices","20":"tag-texas","21":"tag-tx","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-workers-compensation"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115915861708722482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}