After 15 years at Quality Pork Processors, Susan Kruse, 37, was told by her physician that she may never work again due to a neurological syndrome later connected to her job.

She was one of five QPP employees initially diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, an immune disorder that attacks the nerves, resulting in numbness, tingling and weakness in the arms and legs.

As many as 12 total, all “head table” employees scraping pig skulls with knives and air compressors, would complain of similar symptoms that, like Kruse’s, could leave them permanently debilitated. Two Mayo neurologists believe the illnesses resulted from brain tissue scattered by compressed air, though questions still remain about what exact illness they are afflicted by.

It’s an uncommon twist to a somewhat common story — a worker injured indefinitely because of long-term exposure or an accident at work. And whether it’s carpal tunnel syndrome, a lost limb or a crippling disease, the recourse available to the employee is the same: workers’ compensation.

“Workmen’s comp is the sole and exclusive remedy for employees against their employer,” said Dean LeDoux of the Minneapolis-based Gray Plant Mooty law firm, which represents business interests in cases like these. “It’s guaranteed coverage, but they are limited to that coverage.”

It trumps the lawsuit nearly every time. Workmen’s compensation pays medical bills and replaces a portion of wages based on factors such as salary, age and injury through formulas outlined in state law.

So in lieu of months or years in civil court with a potentially lucrative pay-off that includes pain and suffering damages, employees are immediately given standardized smaller sums if and when their employer accepts their claim.

“It’s a no-fault system,” Donaldson Lawhead of Lawhead Offices in Austin said. “The employee only has to prove that the matter arose out of his employment.”

It’s a system seemingly designed for a middle ground: Protecting both the employer and the employee from utter financial ruin. States entered the issue in the early 20th century, when employees were traditionally denied benefits despite work-related injury.

“The employer’s defense was that you assume the risk, and you wouldn’t get anything,” Lawhead said. “The theory that they tried to resolve was the assumption of risk.”

Today each state has its own legislative rule book for worker coverage. Employees in Minnesota have several options based on their injury, how long they’re affected and lost earning potential: total temporary, partial temporary and permanent total disability.

“There’s a legislative roadmap that you have to follow,” Lawhead said.

Only two factors may make a lawsuit legitimate, according to Lawhead and LeDoux.

The first: if the employer received notice of dangers and ignored them, thereby causing the injury.

“Extraordinary negligence, to the degree to where there’s willful indifference,” LeDoux explained. “It’s very difficult to satisfy that.”

The second: a culpable third party. A lawsuit may be successful, for instance, if faulty machinery were at fault, and lawyers could prove negligence on the manufacturer’s part.

“If it turns out that any party outside of the employer played a significant part in the conditions that lead to the injury, then they could be sued,” LeDoux said.

Lawhead, who’s represented employees in workmen’s coverage issues, said despite the clear-cut statute, employees can benefit from private counsel when applying for workmen’s compensation.

“Whenever we do a workmen’s comp, there’s usually 10 to 15 issues where we think the employee should be paid higher,” Lawhead said. How the employer computes lost wages, whether the person has a second job, early termination of benefits are a few, he said, adding that illegal immigrants cannot be denied workmen’s compensation.

Kruse said Wednesday that QPP hasn’t contacted her since the announcement from the Minnesota Department of Health about the outbreak earlier this month. She left her position last February, and now makes regular trips to the Mayo Clinic for treatment.

She said she has not received any workmen’s compensation benefits. Her medical bills are covered by a state health program.

“I don’t receive nothing from the plant,” she said.