The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a case on behalf of one of its clients against his Employer and it’s worker’s compensation insurance company. Our client was injured on April 11, 2019 when he was loading material while employed at the Home Depot. Our client injured his back and proceeded through conservative treatment consisting of physical therapy; interventional nerve blocks; and ablations. An MRI showed our client severely injured his lumbar spine at the L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels. His treating orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Eskander, suggested a two-level fusion surgery. The claim was originally accepted by the Home Depot; however, the Home Depot would not authorize the surgery. The Industrial Accident Board heard the testimony of Dr. Eskander, our client’s medical expert, and found Dr. Eskander more convincing than that of the defense medical expert, Dr. Rushton. The Industrial Accident Board rejected the opinion of Dr. Rushton, an orthopaedic surgeon out of Lankenau Hospital, who provided an opinion that our client only sustained a strain and sprain of his low back injury. Dr. Rushton had a difficult time explaining why, after two and a half years following an accepted work accident, our client continued with credible complaints and restrictions to his work capacity. Dr. Rushton further testified that he did not believe that the mechanism of injury was competent to produce a lumbar radiculopathy or aggravate any pre-existing asymptomatic low back conditions. The Industrial Accident Board found his testimony somewhat incredulous under the circumstances of this case. Accordingly, the Industrial Accident Board found our client’s testimony to be credible; found his father’s testimony to be credible; and relied upon the opinion of our client’s orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Eskander. The Industrial Accident Board agreed that our client’s proposed surgery was reasonable, necessary, and causally related to the work accident. The Industrial Accident Board further ordered the worker’s compensation carrier to reimburse our firm for our medical expert witness fee as well as payment of an attorney’s fee. (Olliver v. The Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., Hearing No.: 1484773 Date of Decision: January 27, 2022)
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