Palmer v. Midwest Fertilizer, Inc.

2017 Ark. App. 236, 519 S.W.3d 732, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 256
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedApril 19, 2017
DocketCV-16-1047
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 236 (Palmer v. Midwest Fertilizer, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palmer v. Midwest Fertilizer, Inc., 2017 Ark. App. 236, 519 S.W.3d 732, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 256 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

BRANDON J. HARRISON, Judge

h George Palmer appeals the decision of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (the Commission) that reversed the administrative law judge (ALJ) and found that he did not prove that he had sustained a compensable injury. He argues that the Commission’s decision is not supported by substantial evidence. We affirm.

Palmer, an employee of Midwest Fertilizer, Inc., claimed that he sustained a com-pensable injury when he stepped into a pool of water tainted with chemicals and aggravated a blister on his right foot. This aggravation led to a severe infection that resulted in the amputation of Palmer’s right leg below the knee. Palmer sought compensation for his medical treatment and temporary total-disability (TTD) benefits; Midwest controverted the claim in its entirety. An ALJ conducted a hearing on the matter in February 2016.

| aPalmer’s testimony was as follows: He began working for Midwest as a location manager on 20 April 2015, and on approximately May 12, he arrived at work between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and discovered a pool of standing water near a loading area. It had rained the night before, and when it rained, the rainwater ran through the area where the fertilizer was mixed and pooled in a bay area of the loading facility. When this occurred, it was customary to drain the area, so Palmer used a sump pump to drain the water out. While doing so, Palmer briefly stepped into the water to get a kink out of the drainage hose. He was wearing New Balance tennis shoes that were not water resistant, and he continued working throughout the day without changing or dx*ying off his socks or shoes. He also had a blister on the big toe of his right foot from wearing cowboy boots a week or so previously that he had been treating with Neosporin.

Palmer did not notice any discomfort that day, but that evening he noticed raw areas across the top of four of his toes (but not his big toe), which he treated with Neosporin. He returned to work but noticed, approximately ten days later, swelling in his right ankle and a clear discharge from around the blister area. He treated his foot by elevating it, but it continued to worsen, and he developed a limp. He also tried applying ice to his foot and soaking it in Epsom salts. On May 20, he began experiencing chills, nausea, and vomiting. On May 21, Palmer told his supervisor, Chris Newhart, that “there was something in the water that I stepped in that must be causing the swelling” and that he needed to see a doctor. Palmer left work early and went to a clinic, but he did not see a doctor because he could not afford the $100 payment. On Sunday, May 24, Palmer noticed a black spot on the top of his right foot, and when a second black spot appeared on May 25, Palmer went to the | aemergency room at Northwest Medical Center. He was admitted to the hospital that same day.

Dr. Marc Rogers examined Palmer and began treatment with antibiotics. Rogers eventually amputated the big toe on Palmer’s right foot and later his right leg below the knee. Palmer continued follow-up care with Rogers and attended physical therapy both before and after receiving a prosthetic. He returned to work at Midwest on September 17. Palmer obtained health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield in July 2015 and was eligible for health insurance through Midwest in October 2015, but he had no health insurance coverage for the treatment he received prior to 1 July 2015. His current bills totaled over $200,000.

According to Palmer, any issue with his blood sugar was first mentioned to him in 1998 when he underwent a stent procedure. He was prescribed Metformin, which he took for a short time but discontinued taking it when he left his employment and could no longer afford it. In 2014, he was told by another doctor that his blood sugar “was borderline on being a diabetic” and again prescribed Metformin, but he again discontinued taking the medication because it was too expensive. He denied that he had ever been diagnosed with or treated for a diabetic ulcer anywhere on his body. He also denied being aware that he was diabetic before he was admitted to the hospital on May 25.

Chris Newhart, a general manager at Midwest and Palmer’s supervisor, testified that he first noticed a problem with Palmer’s right leg around May 20. Newhart noticed Palmer limping and asked him what had happened; Palmer said that he had “twisted his ankle or something getting off the skid steer.” Newhart told him the next day to go see a doctor if |4he wanted to. According to Newhart, “[Palmer] may have said something about stepping into the water previous to that, but I really—all I took was that he had twisted his ankle getting off the skid steer.”

Dr. Marc Rogers’s deposition was introduced as a joint exhibit. In that deposition, Rogers explained that he physically examined Palmer on May 27 and noted swelling and an eleven-millimeter ulcer on the bottom of his right big toe: “foul-smelling drainage, pus, and it was black on the top of the toe, and it appeared to me that it was full thickness, dried gangrene on the top.” Rogers performed a debridement to remove the contaminated and necrotic tissue and found “extensive soft-tissue infection and necrosis of the toe, as well as infection of the bone of the great toe, of the first toe, and a large amount of tissue necrosis.” Rogers performed a second surgery, a below-knee amputation of the foot, on June 2. Rogers agreed that Palmer had “some problem with blood sugars” upon his admission, but Rogers did not know if Palmer had a preexisting history of diabetes. Palmer complained to Rogers that “the diagnosis of diabetes was all over the record” and that “workers’ comp was going to use that as a basis to deny payment.” At Palmer’s request, Rogers wrote a letter outlining the course of events as Palmer had described them. In the letter, Rogers concluded that “it is my opinion that with good medical certainty, the inoculation to his foot occurred when he stepped into the water while at work on May 12, 2015.” In his deposition, Rogers clarified that this opinion was based “strictly [on] the sequence of events that occurred.” He agreed that he would not have had to perform the right-leg amputation if Palmer had not stepped in that pool of water.

| sIn March 2016, the ALJ issued an opinion and found that Palmer had proved that he suffered a compensable injury. The ALJ awarded payment for all reasonable and necessary medical treatment related to the compensable injury and TTD benefits from 25 May 2015 to 17 September 2015. In its findings, the ALJ found that Palmer did have a preexisting diabetic condition but noted that “an employer takes an employee as it finds him and employment circumstances that aggravate preexisting conditions are compensable.” The ALJ concluded that “the incident of claimant getting his foot wet aggravated his pre-existing diabetic condition which eventually led to the infection and amputation of claimant’s right leg below the knee.” The ALJ also specifically found Palmer credible:

Given claimant’s testimony which I find to be credible based upon my observations at the hearing, the history of injury given at the emergency room, and Newhart’s testimony that claimant might have said something about stepping into water to him, I find claimant’s testimony to be credible regarding the time line of events in this case. Furthermore, I find that Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 236, 519 S.W.3d 732, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palmer-v-midwest-fertilizer-inc-arkctapp-2017.