CASPER - Life is looking up for Eric Yates. He recently found a doctor to cut off his toes.

With any luck at all, the amputee will be back on the rigs in a couple of months and self-sufficient again - ending more than three years of troublesome dealings with the state's workers' compensation bureaucracy.

"I'm one of the lucky ones. I do believe why I'm so lucky is because of workers' compensation being under fire," Yates said recently.

When Yates spoke to the Star-Tribune last winter, he said the combination of his battle with the Wyoming Workers' Safety and Compensation Division and the inability to work and to be self-sufficient had pushed him over the edge.

He'd attempted suicide, and several times ended up at the Wyoming Behavioral Institute.

His troubles began in 2005 when he went to work on a rig outside Shoshoni. One day a set of elevators came crashing down on his left foot with the weight of an old straight six-cylinder engine, splitting his toes in opposite directions.

Yates was too battered to return to laborious work. He, like many other seriously injured workers in Wyoming, was looking at the prospect of a one-time settlement payment of $10,000 - a pittance compared to a career cut short and the ability to support one's self.

"I wasn't looking for a settlement. I was looking to get healed up so I could go back to work," Yates said.

Worker advocates brought pressure upon legislators and the Wyoming Workers' Safety and Compensation Division this past year to improve services to seriously injured workers. The campaign resulted in a legislative interim study of workers' compensation.

Next month, state lawmakers will consider draft legislation to extend some benefits, including death benefits and cost-of-living adjustments for permanent disabilities.

Whether it's real or perceived, Yates believes the pressure on the division resulted in the kind of cooperation it took to find a medical resolution to his injury rather than a 'low-ball' payment to short-change him of an interrupted career in the oilfield.

"It sucks I had to lose part of my foot. But to go back to work and be able to walk without pain, it was worth it," Yates said recently. "I know carpentry and several things, but where my heart is is on the rigs. I really enjoy it."

Contact energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or {M7dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com