§ 27-14-603 — Burden of proof; required proof of circumstances; coronary conditions; hernia

(a) The burden of proof in contested cases involving
injuries which occur over a substantial period of time is on the
employee to prove by competent medical authority that his claim
arose out of and in the course of his employment and to prove by
a preponderance of evidence that:
(i) There is a direct causal connection between the
condition or circumstances under which the work is performed and
the injury;
(ii) The injury can be seen to have followed as a
natural incident of the work as a result of the employment;
(iii) The injury can fairly be traced to the
employment as a proximate cause;
(iv) The injury does not come from a hazard to which
employees would have been equally exposed outside of the
employment; and
(v) The injury is incidental to the character of the
business and not independent of the relation of employer and
employee.
(b) Benefits for employment-related coronary conditions
except those directly and solely caused by an injury, are not
payable unless the employee establishes by competent medical
authority that:
(i) There is a direct causal connection between the
condition under which the work was performed and the cardiac
condition; and
(ii) The causative exertion occurs during the actual
period of employment stress clearly unusual to or abnormal for
employees in that particular employment, irrespective of whether
the employment stress is unusual to or abnormal for the
individual employee; and
(iii) The acute symptoms of the cardiac condition are
clearly manifested not later than four (4) hours after the
alleged causative exertion.
(c) If an employee suffers a hernia, he is entitled to
compensation if he clearly proves that:
(i) The hernia is of recent origin;
(ii) Its appearance was accompanied by pain;
(iii) It was immediately preceded by some accidental
strain suffered in the course of the employment; and
(iv) It did not exist prior to the date of the
alleged injury.
(d) If an employee establishes his right to compensation
for a hernia as provided and elects not to be operated on, he
shall not be compensated for the results of future strangulation
of the hernia.
(e) In those proceedings in which the entitlement of an
employee to benefits for successive compensable injuries is
established but no single employer can be determined to be
chargeable for the injuries, the division shall apportion the
benefit charge in accordance with W.S. 27-14-201(d).