Louis Hendricks v. New Castle County

The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in its prosecution of a worker’s compensation claim on behalf of one of our clients.  In this case, we alleged that our client had sustained a serious injury to his back.  His treating physician, Dr. Jeffrey Meyers, provided an opinion that our client had sustained a 36% impairment rating to his cervical spine.  Dr. Meyers, in the past, had provided for a 7% impairment rating, but since that time, the Claimant underwent several surgeries.  The employer is this case, New Castle County, hired Dr. Brian Shinkle.  Dr. Shinkle was of the opinion that our client had only sustained a 10% impairment.  The Industrial Accident Board found Dr. Meyers to be credible and found Dr. Shinkle’s examination “flawed”.  Our client and his wife testified that Dr. Shinkle, despite his testimony to the contrary, performed an examination that may have lasted only ten minutes.  Moreover, our client and his wife disputed that Dr. Shinkle used any type of medical device to measure loss of range of motion.  The Industrial Accident Board found that Dr. Shinkle’s testimony not convincing in the following areas:  that there was no tenderness to palpation in the surgical area; that there was no positive Spurling’s test; that there was no spasm; that range of motion findings were near normal despite our client’s undergoing of a surgical fusion, which clearly would decrease range of motion.  The Board held “as such, this calls into question Dr. Shinkle’s measurements, which were quite surprising anyway, given that Claimant would have quite decreased mobility because of the fusion surgery.”  The Industrial Accident Board awarded our client the permanency rating as provided by his medical expert, Dr. Meyers.  The Industrial Accident Board further ordered the employer to pay an attorney’s fee and Dr. Meyers’ expert witness fee for his testimony.  (Louis Hendricks v. New Castle County,Hearing No.: 1355208)