Michael Butler v Rock Hill Mechanical Corporation (Amerisure)
Release Date: 7-21-2020
Venue: St. Louis, MO
Plot Summary:
Claimant, 54, sought PTD benefits alternately against the employer or the Fund. The ALJ found claimant to be a fund total based on August 10,
2009 work injury to his left shoulder and low back, and his pre-existing disability to his
right shoulder and left SI joint dysfunction.
The Commission reversed and found no PTD at the time of MMI. claimant could not return to his work as a pipefitter after his primary injury but that he was rendered totally disabled after MMI because of worsening of his condition from a lumbar and SI fusion related to a pre-existing condition.
https://labor.mo.gov/sites/labor/files/decisions_wc/ButlerMichael09-08274307-21-20.pdf
Comments:
The ALJ found claimant failed to show the accident caused the need the back surgery. The employer relied upon expert opinion that claimant sustained a strain, that the surgery was not necessary because the work injury, and the surgery was not reasonable based in imaging and EMG studies which were "normal." The Commission found Dr. Volarich not persuasive that the accident caused the need for surgery given the absence of new findings, documentation of prior symptoms, and the more credible opinion of a spine surgeon, Dr. Coyle The ALJ noted: "Finally, Dr. Coyle concluded the low back treatment Claimant received after October 14,
2009 was related to his pre-existing SI joint dysfunction, not disc herniations. He noted the
chiropractic treatment Claimant received up to and including August 10, 2009, and beyond.
For these reasons, Claimant did not meet his burden to prove the medical treatment he
received for his low back after October 14, 2009 was medically, causally related to his August
10, 2009 work accident."
Cast:
Carlisle, ALJ
Keefe, atty
Mauer
Volarich
Gonzalez
Taylor (2 level fusion)
Jackman (SI surgery)
