Hardy v. Glasgow Medical Center

The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a claim on behalf of one of our clients.  Our client underwent a total knee replacement on March 23, 2015.  We alleged, on behalf of our client, that the need for the total knee replacement resulted from a March 3, 2014 work accident.  Our client showed up for work when she slipped and fell in her employer’s parking lot that had not been plowed and was very slippery.  The Board agreed with the Claimant’s medial expert, Dr. Crain, that her left knee was in an asymptomatic condition until her fall and, when she fell, she fell on her left knee causing the asymptomatic condition to be rendered symptomatic.  Claimant had a prior left knee meniscus injury which Dr. Crain surgically repaired in March of 2010; however, the Claimant made a very good recovery from that surgery.  Moreover, Dr. Crain provided an opinion that, based on MRI findings, our client’s left knee showed little arthritis at the time whereas our client’s right knee had severe bone on bone arthritis.  The Industrial Accident Board found that the Employer’s expert, Dr. Gelman, was not credible in large part due to photographs taken soon after our client’s date of fall.  Dr. Crain reviewed the photographs and found them to clearly show inflamed, reddened, and bruised knees.  Dr. Gelman’s observations only revealed, in his opinion, “large knees that sustained no black and blue bruising and clearly no contusion had occurred.”  In fact, the emergency room records found bruising/swelling on Claimant’s left knee on March 4, 2014; however, Dr. Gelman provided an opinion that even though there was edema, there was no contusion because our client, in his opinion, did not fall upon her left knee.  The Industrial Accident Board found our client to be credible and found that the March 3, 2014 fall was a compensable incident and found that all treatment, including knee replacement surgery, was reasonable, necessary, and related to the work accident.  The Board also found that there was a closed period of total disability and further awarded an attorney’s fee and the reimbursement of our client’s medical expert witness fee.  (Hardy v. Glasgow Medical Center,Hearing No.: 1411408)