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By Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR

Top: Jeremy Lewis smokes a cigarette outside of his parents’ home in Albertville, Alabama, less than 50 miles from the Georgia state line. If he had been injured in Georgia he would have been entitled to far more than the $45,000 he received under Alabama’s workers’ comp system. Photo: Dustin Chambers for ProPublica

Top: Jeremy Lewis smokes a cigarette outside of his parents’ home in Albertville, Alabama, less than 50 miles from the Georgia state line. If he had been injured in Georgia he would have been entitled to far more than the $45,000 he received under Alabama’s workers’ comp system. Photo: Dustin Chambers for ProPublica

At the time of their accidents, Jeremy Lewis was 27, Josh Potter 25.

The men lived within 75 miles of each other. Both were married with two children about the same age. Both even had tattoos of their children’s names.

Their injuries, suffered on the job at Southern industrial plants, were remarkably similar, too. Each man lost a portion of his left arm in a machinery accident.

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