The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a claim on behalf of one of its clients. Our client seriously injured his left knee when he slipped on ice and snow at work. Our client was an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT); is married; and has two children. After the fall, there was a period of time wherein our client was not able to receive worker’s compensation benefits in the forms of medical treatment payments and total disability payments. Upon retaining our firm, we were able to initiate total disability payments very soon thereafter. However, in the interim, our client had used all of his savings account in order to pay his family bills. He required surgery on his left knee and he began to become depressed. He was in a lot of physical pain due to the work accident and the surgery; he could not pay his bills; he could not buy his family Christmas presents; and was not able to buy everyday items such as diapers. He began feeling useless at home and could not help with his special needs daughter. He was not able to bathe his daughter because he was on crutches and wore a brace on his knee. He needed help with his own hygiene, and could not get into the shower to bathe. Despite physical therapy twice a week, our client did not feel that his leg was getting better. Our client began to have nightmares of his fall wherein he would lose his balance, fly up into the air, and fall to the ground. However, before he fell to the ground, he would wake up. These dreams occurred almost every night and he would lose sleep over them. Our client began treating with a psychologist and a mental health therapist due to these problems. The worker’s compensation insurance carrier denied that our client’s problems were related to the original work injury. The Industrial Accident Board found that we had met our burden to show that the mental health treatment in question was reasonable, necessary, and related to the January 22, 2016 work accident. The Industrial Accident Board found that the Claimant’s expert, Dr. Weisberg, was more credible than that of the defense expert, Dr. Wolfram Rieger. The Industrial Accident Board ordered the worker’s compensation insurance carrier to pay for all treatment provided by the mental health professionals; and further ordered the carrier to reimburse our firm for Dr. Weisberg’s expert testimony and to pay our firm an attorney’s fee for our successful presentation at the Industrial Accident Board. (Carter v. Urgent Ambulance Service, Inc.,Hearing No.: 1444881Date of Decision: February 3, 2017)
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