Wester v. Wilson Cty.

CourtNorth Carolina Industrial Commission
DecidedApril 13, 2004
DocketI.C. NO. 112577
StatusPublished

This text of Wester v. Wilson Cty. (Wester v. Wilson Cty.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Carolina Industrial Commission primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wester v. Wilson Cty., (N.C. Super. Ct. 2004).

Opinion

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The undersigned reviewed the prior Opinion and Award, based upon the record of the proceedings before Deputy Commissioner Chapman. The appealing party has not shown good ground to reconsider the evidence; receive further evidence; rehear the parties or their representatives; and having reviewed the competent evidence of record, the Full Commission affirms the Opinion and Award of Deputy Commissioner Chapman with minor modifications.

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The Full Commission finds as fact and concludes as matters of law the following, which were entered into by the parties at the hearing before the Deputy Commissioner as:

STIPULATIONS
1. Defendant-employer regularly employed three or more employees and was bound by the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act. The employer-employee relationship existed between the employer and the employee on January 30, 2001, the alleged date of injury.

2. The employer is self-insured and the servicing agent is Sedgwick CMS, Inc.

3. This is an accepted claim and plaintiff's average weekly wage was $590.40, and her weekly compensation rate was $393.62.

In addition, the parties stipulated into evidence a packet of documents which was submitted after the hearing. The written stipulation accompanying the documents indicated that records of the North Carolina Medical Board relating to Dr. Rosner were being stipulated into evidence.

The Pre-Trial Agreement dated February 3, 2003, which was submitted by the parties, is incorporated by reference.

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Based upon all of the competent evidence of record and reasonable inferences flowing therefrom, the Full Commission makes the following:

FINDINGS OF FACT
1. Plaintiff was forty-four years old and a college graduate at the time of the hearing before the Deputy Commissioner. Plaintiff began working for defendant in approximately January 1999 as a public health nurse in the county health department. She was assigned to work on the pediatric team, but she would occasionally have to work in other areas as the need arose. Her regular job involved screening children and giving them immunization shots.

2. On January 30, 2001 plaintiff sustained a compensable injury by accident at work. As she was walking to get a band-aid for a child, she slipped on some powered baby formula and fell backwards, striking her head. Her co-workers called an ambulance because she indicated that she could not get up. Her left knee was painful and she had a headache. She denied losing consciousness when questioned by ambulance personnel, but she later could not remember all of the details of what had happened when the emergency room staff asked her for a history of the events. On examination in the emergency room, she had slight swelling over the left occipital area but no tenderness of her cervical spine. She would not consent to have a CT scan of her head performed, presumably because she did not believe that she had sustained that severe of a head injury. The emergency room physician or physician's assistant diagnosed her with a concussion and a soft tissue injury to the left knee and recommended that she follow-up with an orthopedic surgeon.

3. On January 31, 2001 plaintiff went to Dr. Appert, an orthopedic surgeon who had previously treated her for unrelated problems. By that time she had developed tenderness in her mid cervical spine area. He ordered x-rays of her cervical spine which showed degenerative disc disease at C5, but her neurological examination was negative. Consequently, he diagnosed her with a cervical sprain. Plaintiff also complained of left knee pain and pain in her coccyx area, since she had landed on her buttocks. X-rays of the knee were negative and she did not appear to have coccydynia, so Dr. Appert ordered symptomatic therapy. He also allowed her to return to work the next day.

4. It appeared that plaintiff did return to work the next day, although the record was not clear on that point, and she worked most of the next month, missing some time due to complaints of problems with her knee. She returned to Dr. Appert on February 12 and February 27, 2001 with her primary complaint being pain in the left knee. The doctor ordered an MRI which appeared to show a tear of the medial meniscus, so he recommended arthroscropic surgery. The surgery was performed March 6, 2001. Dr. Appert did not find a meniscus tear during the operation, however. There was just some chondromalacia of the patella. He subsequently examined her in follow-up on March 19 and on April 27 when he released her to return to work without restrictions. Plaintiff did return to her regular job at the health department.

5. Although neither a Form 60 nor a Form 21 agreement was submitted to the Industrial Commission, defendants did admit liability under the Workers' Compensation Act for plaintiff's injury of January 30, 2001 and paid temporary total disability and medical benefits.

6. After plaintiff returned to work, she performed her normal job duties as a health nurse. There were some occasions when she complained of leg pain and she was allowed to sit at a desk for a while, but she did not complain of unusual headaches, neck pain or problems with her memory. Dr. Appert saw her in June and July 2001 for her knee pain and referred her to physical therapy. Her symptoms improved with the exercise and therapy provided. Plaintiff then did not see him for the remainder of that year. However, in approximately October 2001 she began seeing Dr. Vaughn, another orthopedic surgeon who had been recommended by a doctor she had previously worked with, and Dr. Vaughn treated her with physical therapy and Synvisc injections. Defendant would not authorize the physical therapy he prescribed until February 2002. When plaintiff began undergoing the therapy, she developed increased pain to the point that she felt that she was unable to continue with her functional activities. On February 11, 2002 she returned to Dr. Vaughn who ordered an MRI. The MRI did not reveal significant pathology. Dr. Vaughn then advised plaintiff to see a specialist for complaints of back and leg pain, and he took her out of work.

7. Plaintiff retuned to Dr. Appert on March 12, 2002 and he noted that she was complaining of pain in her cervical spine again, as well as pain in her hip and her back, so he ordered MRI's of both her cervical and lumbar spine. The tests revealed degenerative disc disease in both areas of her spine with marked degeneration of C3, 4 and 5 and with a small cervical disc protrusion at C5-6 which was not encumbering the neural elements. After reviewing the films, Dr. Appert concluded that plaintiff did not have operative disc disease. On April 9, 2002 he released her to return to work at full duty and advised her to work on strengthening her back and neck. She was not satisfied with his recommendations and on April 10 went to Dr. Allen, a neurosurgeon, for another opinion. He and his physician's assistant noted her chief complaint to be posterior buttock pain with some associated lateral leg pain. She also had limitation of motion of her neck with quite a bit of neck spasm and she reported three instances of pain radiating down her left arm, but that was not a major concern. The doctor reviewed her MRI and interpreted it as showing minor desiccation of the L4-5 disc but no herniation or nerve root compression. He recommended physical therapy and perhaps some trigger point injections. Plaintiff did undergo the physical therapy he recommended.

8. However, plaintiff was very dissatisfied with the evaluation by Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
Wester v. Wilson Cty., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wester-v-wilson-cty-ncworkcompcom-2004.