File a workers' comp claim with your employer immediately, and if the insurer denies or underpays it, file a Form 110 Employee Claim with the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents. For any lawsuit against a separate security company or other non-employer, the deadline is usually 3 years from the injury.

What the insurance company wants you to believe: this is "just workers' comp," you cannot sue anybody, and your only rights are basic medical treatment and a partial wage check.

That is the version that saves them money.

Reality: in Massachusetts, workers' comp usually bars a lawsuit against your employer, but it does not automatically protect a third party. If the hospital used an outside security contractor in Fall River and that guard used excessive force, you may have a separate injury claim against the security company and the guard, while still receiving workers' comp benefits.

That matters because workers' comp does not pay for pain and suffering. A third-party claim can.

For a healthcare worker, this comes up more than people realize during spring and summer, when ERs and hospital entrances get more chaotic with motorcycle and cycling crash traffic coming off Route 24 and nearby roads. Employers and carriers often blur everyone together and act like "hospital incident" means "no lawsuit." That is not always true.

A few rights people miss:

• You can seek workers' comp medical care and wage benefits even if someone else caused the injury.
• You may also bring a third-party claim for pain and suffering, full lost wages, and other damages.
• If they blame you, Massachusetts uses modified comparative fault: your recovery is barred only if you were more than 50% at fault.

If the guard was a co-employee, the analysis changes. If the guard worked for a contractor, the hospital usually cannot "block" that outside claim just by calling everything workers' comp.