Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Cases for 2018
For more than a dozen years, Thomas A. Robinson has published his list of the Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Compensation Cases. The list began more than 30 years ago by Professor Arthur Larson and has a decidedly national perspective.
Robinson observes:
More than 30 years ago, my mentor, Dr. Arthur Larson, and I began a quirky New Year’s tradition. Early one January evening, we sat together in his home on Learned Place, near Duke University’s campus here in Durham, North Carolina, sipped an adult beverage, and compared our respective lists of the previous year’s “bizarre” workers’ compensation cases. We continued that tradition until his death. A few years later, I decided to reprise the annual list.
What follows is the first of 10 cases (with six bonus cases).
CASE #1: Just When You Thought it was Safe to go to the Doctor (Oklahoma)
An Oklahoma claimant, who sustained a compensable 2008 injury to various body parts, including the left knee and cervical spine, had sought treatment in 2012 for continued cervical discomfort. She traveled to a nearby medical facility, underwent a steroid epidural injection to her cervical spine, and then was to be wheeled into the recovery area for observation. Inexplicably, medical personnel placed her in a wheelchair that had no foot rests. This, in spite of the fact that she was still partially under sedation. As they wheeled her to recovery, her feet drug on the floor, her knees went underneath the wheelchair, and she was suddenly thrown forward to the hard floor, causing additional injury to her knee. The employer contended the actions of the medical personnel constituted an intervening action, but the Workers’ Compensation Court—and the Supreme Court—disagreed. Claimant was entitled to additional compensation.
City of Tulsa v. Hodge, 2018 OK 65, 429 P.3d 685 (2018)
Read the whole thing.
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