This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at publichealthwatch.org.
More than a decade after the accident, a sudden noise can still thrust Gus Rodriguez right back into the asphalt plant in San Antonio.
Rodriguez, a welder, was working to repair the conveyor system at the Vulcan Materials plant when a chain snapped, sucking him into the machinery. He remembers the sound the metal chain made as each paddle scraped his body and “mangled everything up.” He remembers seeing the bones in his elbow and foot as he was pulled from the “cold mix” of asphalt and petroleum.
“It was like an out-of-body experience,” he told Public Health Watch. “I felt like I could not yell loud enough.”
Rodriguez would eventually lose his left leg to the 2014 accident, one of thousands of workers across the United States who suffer a workplace injury every year that causes or leads to amputations.
More than 26,000 workers — an average of seven per day — suffered workplace amputations from 2015 through 2024, according to a Public Health Watch analysis of severe injury data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
More than half the amputations involved bone loss, from fingers and toes to arms, legs, hands or even multiple limbs. The rest were largely fingertip amputations, an injury that nonetheless required hospitalization 20 percent of the time and can lead to permanent nerve issues.
Accidents causing amputations are on the rise after dropping off during the COVID-19 years, increasing more than 6 percent from 2021 to 2024.
Texas led the nation in worker amputations by a wide margin, with more than 3,900 reported in the 10-year period.
Workplace safety experts told Public Health Watch they expect amputation rates to worsen under the Trump administration.
OSHA lost an estimated 20 percent of its staff in 2025, in part because of government buyouts, and the administration proposed $50 million in budget cuts, or about 8 percent, for fiscal year 2026. Congress rejected most of the proposed cuts, but inspection and oversight responsibilities already appear to have declined.
“The number of deaths are going to increase and the number of amputations will go up, I have no doubt,” said Debbie Berkowitz, a fellow at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University and a former U.S. Department of Labor official who has long raised alarms about conditions in meat-processing plants.
Jordan Barab, who served as deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA in the Obama administration, said the agency under Trump is breaching its legal obligation to protect workers.
“The number of OSHA inspectors is at an all-time low,” said Barab, who writes the “Confined Space” blog. “Even lower than the 1980s, when the economy was much smaller and there were many fewer establishments to be inspected.”
Moreover, the OSHA data on severe injuries — which include amputations, in-patient hospitalizations and loss of an eye — do not reflect the full impact of workplace injuries, according to workplace experts and government analysts. A 2018 audit by the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General estimated that half of all severe accidents go unreported.
OSHA issued a statement to Public Health Watch affirming its commitment to worker safety, but did not answer questions about concerns that oversight is declining. Officials pointed out, however, that OSHA since 2019 has had a national emphasis program focusing on amputations in manufacturing industries that is designed to identify and reduce or eliminate this hazard.
“OSHA cannot speculate on the specific reasons behind the increase in amputations in recent years,” according to the statement from an OSHA spokesperson. “However, we recognize that workplace safety remains a critical concern, particularly in industries where the risk of amputation is prevalent. …
“As part of our commitment to worker safety, OSHA continues to maximize its resources to the greatest extent possible in fulfilling its mission to protect American workers,” according to the statement. “We strive to collaborate closely with employers, workers, industry associations and other stakeholders to identify and rectify potential hazards that pose a risk of amputation. Through education, outreach and enforcement, we aim to create safer working environments and ultimately reduce the incidence of these serious injuries. We encourage all parties involved to prioritize safety measures that protect the workforce and prevent amputations.”
Industries with high rates
Workers in virtually every industry in America, large and small, are represented in the OSHA data, including those on the front lines for airlines, grocery stores, retail outlets, government agencies, transportation and food services.
A man working at a homeless shelter in Albany, New York, lost all four limbs in a machete attack. Thirteen workers suffered amputations in seven years in facilities operated by a sawmill company with operations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania that closed in 2024. Even in American Samoa, a U.S. territory with a population of 50,000, officials reported seven amputations in nine years in the fish processing industry.
“The number of deaths are going to increase and the number of amputations will go up, I have no doubt.”
Over the 10-year period, however, more than half of all amputations — about 14,500 — occurred in the manufacturing industry, a catch-all category used by OSHA for more than 300 industries including meat and poultry processing, sawmills, metal and plastics recycling, smelting and even wineries.
The construction industry was a distant second, with more than 2,700 amputations, or about one in 10 of all amputations reported from 2015 to 2024.
Alabama-based Vulcan Materials, which describes itself as the world’s largest producer of construction aggregates with nearly 600 facilities across the country, has reported two amputations since 2015, neither of which occurred at the San Antonio plant where Rodriguez was injured in 2014, records indicate. A Vulcan official said the company would not comment on specific incidents.
For the other 18 industrial categories identified by OSHA, the number of amputations for each category was below 6 percent of the total, records show.
In the manufacturing industry, animal slaughtering and processing — which includes meat and poultry processing — had the most amputations, with 946 reported over the 10-year period analyzed by Public Health Watch.
Berkowitz is especially troubled by deregulation of the meatpacking industry, which includes poultry, beef and pork processing. Her research has found the industry to be among the most dangerous for workers.
Poultry processing leads within the meatpacking industry, with 424 amputations in the 10-year period. Another industry category, defined by OSHA as meat processing from animal carcasses, reported 274 amputations. Animal slaughtering, excluding poultry, accounted for 215.
Workers in the utility industry are also at elevated risk. Although they made up a small share of amputations overall, the number has risen more sharply than in any other industry in recent years, from 17 in 2023 to 28 in 2024, an increase of nearly 65 percent.
During the past decade, utility workers lost limbs to forklifts, had fingers bitten off by dogs and, in two cases, lost multiple limbs after electrocution.
Emotional, financial impact
The financial and emotional costs of work-related amputations are immense.
Anxiety, depression and PTSD are common among amputees, researchers have found, and many workers are forced to leave their jobs after suffering an amputation.
For Rodriguez, whose wife was expecting their second child when he was injured, the loss of his lower leg was agonizing.
“How was I — as a man — how was I going to provide for my wife? How was I going to provide for our newborn?” Rodriguez remembers wondering as he lay in the University of Texas Health Science Center hospital in San Antonio.
The average workers’ compensation payout for an amputation is about $125,000, according to the National Safety Council’s assessment of workers’ compensation costs.
The medical team tried to save his leg, performing multiple surgeries, but were forced to remove more and more of the limb as Rodriguez’s body rejected skin and muscle grafts.
“It was a very nasty operation,” he said.
After spending two-and-a-half weeks in the intensive care unit, Rodriguez opted for below-the-knee amputation, deciding that his quality of life would be better with a prosthetic leg.
Rodriguez, however, didn’t endure some of the difficulties other workers can face. He said Vulcan Materials was supportive after the accident, and insurance covered his hospital stay, surgeries, artificial limb and physical rehabilitation. He also received lifetime workers’ compensation.
Some workers can be hit with tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. For amputations below the knee, for example, patients can expect to spend $50,000 on the initial hospitalization and $100,000 on care for the first two years, according to a 2022 article from the Iowa Orthopaedic Journal.
Compensation for amputees, meanwhile, varies sharply. The average workers’ compensation payout for an amputation is about $125,000, according to the National Safety Council’s assessment of workers’ compensation costs. But settlements can go higher in some regions. A worker in a baking and packaging facility in New Jersey received a $4.6 million settlement after losing four fingers and part of a thumb.
Modest federal penalties for safety violations offer little incentive for employers to be more diligent, critics contend.
For medium and large companies, “penalties have very little impact on their bottom line and profitability,” Barab, the former OSHA official, said.
Small companies — which already qualify for reduced fines — have been granted even larger breaks under the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
In July, the Labor Department changed its policies to allow companies with 25 or fewer employees to receive automatic penalty reductions of 70 percent, and to allow reductions for companies without a history of violations or for those that took immediate steps to remedy an unsafe situation.
Reduced oversight
Accidents have been expected to increase since Donald Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, and cutbacks are expected to be felt in OSHA inspections and penalties.
“Final numbers for 2025 are not yet out, but we’ve seen indications that there were fewer inspections, overall penalties were lower and there were fewer willful violations cited,” Barab said.
On February 19, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced two proposed rules that would increase line speeds at poultry and hog processing plants, a move the Johns Hopkins Center for Liveable Future has warned would increase injury rates. The proposed rules for poultry and swine were published in the Federal Register, and public comments will be accepted through April 20.
Berkowitz said the changes would be dangerous to workers.
“Bowing to industry demands, the USDA today issued two proposed rules to increase line speeds in chicken/turkey and hog plants,” Berkowitz wrote in an email sent after the rules were published. “This is despite studies showing the already high injury risks these workers face.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union also issued a statement condemning the proposals.
“UFCW members work tirelessly to feed America in meatpacking plants every single day,” said Mark Lauritsen, the union’s international vice president who oversees the food processing, packing and manufacturing division.
“The Trump administration’s proposed rule endangers hard-working union and non-union workers alike, all in service to the bottom line of big meatpackers,” he said in a statement. “Today’s move risks taking us back to the days of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, where terrible working conditions in meatpacking plants left workers sick and injured at alarming rates … We will fight to ensure their safety on the job.”
The meatpacking industry is “enormously powerful.” Berkowitz said. “They have enormous resources. These are billion-dollar companies with huge profits.”
Berkowitz said she believes worker accidents are underreported, perhaps even including amputations. Meat-processing employees are disproportionately undocumented immigrants, she said, and may be hesitant to report an injury.
“They may be terrified, even if they have an amputation,” she said. “They may say to the company … ‘You don’t need to take care of me. I’m going to go do this on my own. You don’t have to report it.’”
Barab said OSHA funding cuts remain on the table. The Trump administration has made clear that it considers congressional appropriations to be “maximum” budgets, and that the president can “impound” — or not spend — funds appropriated by Congress.
“The administration’s attempt to impound funds will ultimately end up in court,” Barab said. “Republicans in Congress could stop it, but they seem to have no stomach to stand up to Trump.”
‘Speed … over safety’
More worker amputations were reported in Texas than in any other state — 1.6 times more than in the second-worst state, Ohio. The difference can perhaps be explained in part by the concentrations of industries: Texas leads the nation in construction spending and oil and gas production, and has the third-highest employment of slaughterers and meatpackers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And Texas remains the only state in the country where companies are not required to have workers’ compensation insurance, which can provide weekly benefits, medical care and job protections.
“I feel like with our current political context, employers feel very emboldened to discriminate … against immigrant and brown workers,” said Laura Boston, the organizing director of Workers Defense, a labor and immigrant advocacy group based in Houston.
Lara Brock, a workplace injury lawyer in San Antonio, said companies have little motivation to protect their employees.
“We just see companies prioritizing speed and efficiency over safety, because there’s no reason for them not to,” Brock said.
Her firm represented a metals manufacturing worker who lost a thumb and index finger in 2019 because of an unguarded saw, a violation of OSHA standards, according to legal documents. The company ultimately settled, she said.
“I feel like with our current political context, employers feel very emboldened to discriminate … against immigrant and brown workers.”
In 2024, a copper plant worker in Sealy, Texas, lost an arm to an unguarded conveyor belt, according to an OSHA press release. The company, Hailiang Copper Texas, a subsidiary of China Hailiang Group, paid just over $250,000 in fines for the 24 serious violations cited in OSHA’s investigation. The conglomerate claimed on its website that it had a net profit of $100 million in 2024; it did not respond to a request for comment..
While the Trump administration has maintained standards for machine guarding, OSHA and its counterpart, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, have proposed eliminating more than three dozen other rules. Among them: lighting requirements at construction sites and color-coded hazard warnings on machinery, such as unguarded saws.
Empowered
Sitting among the Christmas decorations in late November at his home in a Denver suburb, Rodriguez said he considers himself one of the lucky ones.
He was reassigned to a less physical job at Vulcan after his accident and later moved to Colorado to work as a manager in a steel mill for a different company.
But the aftermath of his injury was hard on his family. His wife, Jordan, was taking care of both a newborn and her husband, who was in a wheelchair for six months before receiving his prosthetic limb.
Jordan Rodriguez told Public Health Watch that she snapped one day when he asked for a shirt.
“I was like, ‘No, I’m done. You can get the shirt yourself. You can do these things by yourself,’” she said.
Rodriguez said he was initially upset, but now realizes the tough love saved his marriage. He started doing things for himself — cooking dinner for the family again, mowing the lawn. Seven years after his accident, a third child was born.
In the process, he went to a therapist for the first time in his life, determined to put aside his pride to save his marriage.
“I took pride in it, I was getting my masculinity back,” he said. “And then I got my prosthetic on. The sky was the limit at that point.”
His wife agrees.
“I don’t know if we would have been able to work out if the accident hadn’t happened,” she said. “I think it humbled him a lot, and I think it was able to bring him, bring us closer together.”
Rodriguez received two prosthetics — a traditional one and an “Empower foot,” a battery-powered device that mimics lost muscle function and allows for a higher walking speed. He has run 5k races, gone snowboarding and wakeboarding, and practiced soccer with his kids.
He still struggles, however, with PTSD, especially at restaurants, where smells and sounds can trigger his memory of the accident.
Today, as a manager, he prioritizes safety. He wants all of his employees to go home intact at the end of the day.
“I like to share my story to let people know, ‘You’re getting paid to be safe. You’re getting paid to report unsafe conditions,’” he said. “The regulation is there to make sure that their employees are safe.”
Eshaan Sarup spent a year reporting at Public Health Watch as a Roy W. Howard fellow from the Howard Center for Investigative Reporting at Arizona State University. He received his master’s degree in investigative reporting in December 2024 from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Public Health Watch data reporter Shelby Jouppi contributed to this report.
The post Workplace Amputations Are on the Rise in Texas and Nationwide appeared first on The Texas Observer.
