The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a claim on behalf of one of our clients. Our client developed bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of his usual exertions at work with his employer. Our client was a truck driver who was required to drive to Buffalo and back twice a week and load many boxes of food items weighing anywhere between 3 pounds and 100 pounds. Our client needed to unload the truck; lift boxes onto a dolly; and then wheel the dolly down a ramp into the store. In the early fall of 2015, our client began to notice a tingling sensation in his hand and an EMG performed on December 22, 2015 concluded that our client had sustained moderate to severe bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. The defense in this case focused on a prior right wrist problem that our client sustained in 2013. The problem was pain in the base of the wrist and did not include tingling and numbness that our client sustained from the carpal tunnel syndrome. After two cortisone shots in 2013, our client was pain fee and symptom free until he began working for his present employer. Our client’s medical expert, Dr. Sowa, testified that the carpal tunnel syndrome was caused by the cumulative effect of our client’s work duties with his present employer. Accordingly, Dr. Sowa plans on providing surgery to both wrists in the very near future. The defense medical expert, Dr. Willie Thompson, stated he was not able to provide a medical opinion “one way or the other” concerning the effect of the carrying and lifting activities that our client engaged in because he (the doctor) had “never done that type of work before” and “never watched others do that type of work.” The Industrial Accident Board found Dr. Sowa’s opinion to be more persuasive than that of Dr. Thompson. Accordingly, the Industrial Accident Board found a compensable injury to our client’s wrists from his work activities at his present employer. The Industrial Accident Board ordered the worker’s compensation insurance company to pay for all reasonable and related medical treatment incurred to date (including the surgeries that our client will undergo in the future). The Industrial Accident Board further ordered the worker’s compensation insurance company to pay our firm an attorney’s fee and reimburse Dr. Sowa for his medical expert fee.(Clarke v. Sysco Corporation,Hearing No.: 1444676 Date of Decision: December 1, 2016)
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