Littleton v. Richardson Medical Center

954 So. 2d 812, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 636, 2007 WL 984095
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 4, 2007
DocketNo. 42,082-WCA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 954 So. 2d 812 (Littleton v. Richardson Medical Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Littleton v. Richardson Medical Center, 954 So. 2d 812, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 636, 2007 WL 984095 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

GASKINS, J.

h The claimant, Dana Littleton, appeals from a judgment dismissing her workers’ compensation claim against her employer, Richardson Medical Center. We affirm.

FACTS

The claimant was employed as a registered nurse at Richardson Medical Center (RMC) in Rayville, Louisiana. According to the form initiating her claim with the Office of Workers’ Compensation (OWC), the claimant was at work on April 11, 2004, when she struck her buttock/hip on a handrail in the hospital. She alleged that this incident caused her to suffer from reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSD), a painful chronic neurological condition described in the record as a malfunction of that portion of the nervous system that, among other things, regulates blood flow. The claimant asserts that pain caused by her RSD prevents her from working.

RMC refused to pay the claimant workers’ compensation benefits because of what the hospital considered insufficient evidence that she suffered an accident at work that could have caused her to suffer RSD. The matter went to trial before the OWC judge on May 10, 2006. After hearing the witnesses and considering the medical evidence, the. OWC judge concluded that the claimant failed to prove that any injury she suffered at work caused her disability.

The claimant now appeals, urging that the trial court’s finding was manifestly erroneous.

^TESTIMONY

Injury

The claimant testified that on April 11, 2004, she was exiting the nurse’s station to take medication to a patient when she almost collided with a patient. To avoid contact with the patient, she turned and hit a handrail on the wall. The handrail struck her right buttock. She testified that she felt a sharp pain go down her leg and that she was unable to move for a few minutes.

A nurse’s aide, Lucy Collins, testified that she saw the claimant bump into a handrail right outside the door to the [814]*814nurse’s station. While Ms. Collins finally concluded that a patient was probably with her at the time, she indicated that the claimant could not have been trying to avoid bumping into them.1 She also testified that the claimant struck her left side, not the right.

The claimant testified that since the accident occurred on Easter Sunday, she had to wait until the following day to inform her supervisor, Linda Blaine, about the incident and that Rosemary Johnson was present when she told Ms. Blaine. However, Ms. Johnson testified that she was not present during any such conversation between the claimant and Ms. Blaine and that she knew nothing about the claimant bumping into a handrail. She recalled the claimant complaining about her knee, but she believed that this predated when the claimant struck the handrail. Also, the claimant did not|sfill out a written incident report or go to the emergency room to be examined after the incident as required by hospital policy.

Medical evidence

The claimant testified that she continued working after her injury, but she developed pain in her right knee. She also went to Disney World on vacation with her family at the end of May 2004. She did a considerable amount of walking on the trip, and she experienced severe right knee pain.

On June 17, 2004, the claimant went to see Dr. Sol Graves at the Orthopedic Clinic of Monroe. According to his notes, she complained of right knee pain of a month’s duration. She told him that she did not recall any injury; however, she mentioned doing lunges while exercising and extensive walking at Disney World. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication. When she saw Dr. Graves again on June 22, 2004, she was complaining that the pain had moved up her right leg. Dr. Graves believed that her back was the source of her pain. However, MRI’s on her right knee and back were essentially normal, as was a lumbar myelogram.2

In the meantime, on June 18, 2004, the claimant ceased working as an RN at RMC.

In early July 2004, the claimant sought a second opinion from Dr. Douglas Brown, an orthopedic surgeon. He diagnosed her as having inflammatory arthritis, right sciatica, of unknown etiology. According to the information supplied by the claimant, her current problem was the result |4of “other,” as opposed to “vehicle accident,” “work accident” or “accident,” and it occurred during “unknown” activity.

In mid-July 2004, Dr. Brown sent the claimant to Dr. Robert Goodman, a rheu-matologist, for evaluation. She reported pain in her right leg and buttock with a burning sensation in the right knee, thigh and calf. She also recounted changes in the color and temperature of her right leg. According to Dr. Goodman, she denied trauma preceding the knee pain, but talked about several car accidents and her walking at Disney World. He diagnosed her as having RSD and an anxiety disorder.

Several hours after her initial appointment with Dr. Goodman on July 14, 2004, the claimant called his office to report that she had suffered a blow to her right hip and asked if that could have caused her problems. The nurse told her it was un[815]*815likely. In his deposition, Dr. Goodman agreed with the nurse’s assessment, stating that it would be “very unusual” for RSD to be caused by bumping a hip and that the chances were “relatively small” that it caused the claimant’s injury. In Dr. Goodman’s experience, if RSD is caused by trauma, it is a significant injury, such as a broken bone, a herniated neck disc, or a pinched nerve in the neck or back. Also, the trauma would be to the sciatic nerve or very close to the nerve. He testified that he has never seen it develop as the result of bumping into a handrail.

At Dr. Goodman’s request, the claimant was seen on . July 27, 2004, by Dr. Randall Brewer, who specializes in pain management. His records contain a notation that “[m]uch of her difficulty began after she struck her rt hip at work. No acute injury requiring urgent medical care was reported.”

| 50n August 12, 2004, the claimant was seen in Dr. Goodman’s office again. She complained of significant pain, muscle spasm and burning in the right leg. On a scale of one to ten, she rated her pain at eight and stated that her level of functioning was “very poor.” The notes from this visit state that the claimant was “[histrionic] and manipulative” with the staff and in front of other patients in the waiting room. Although complaining of right ghiteal pain, she refused to allow the nurse practitioner to examine the area, saying she had a torn ligament from a job injury. As her MRI results were normal, she was told that this was unlikely.

The next day, the claimant called Dr. Goodman’s office to request that disability papers be filled out for her. She was told that Dr. Brewer should fill them out; according to the claimant, Dr. Brewer had refused. When Dr. Goodman likewise refused, the claimant became agitated and threatened to talk to her lawyer and “do what I have to do” to get them to fill out the paperwork for her. Dr. Goodman sent her a letter dated August 13, 2004, discharging her from his practice due to her abuse and anger toward the staff. He specified that he was not prepared to complete long-term disability paperwork in her case because there was insufficient evidence at that point to conclude that she required long-term disability.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
954 So. 2d 812, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 636, 2007 WL 984095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/littleton-v-richardson-medical-center-lactapp-2007.