The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a claim on behalf of one of our clients. Our client injured herself at work on November 16, 2021 and sustained an acknowledged low back injury. Our office filed a petition with the Industrial Accident Board to seek treatment to our client’s right knee. Our client did not immediately complain about her right knee symptoms due to the severity of her back injuries. By our client’s own testimony, the right knee complaints arose about four days after the work event. When the knee complaints arose, she did report it to her supervisor and added that she thought her right knee struck a metal bed during the work accident. The Industrial Accident Board found our that our client was credible in her rendition as to know her knee injury occurred. Moreover, the Industrial Accident Board found the testimony of Dr. Crain, our client’s treating orthopaedic surgeon, to be much more credible than that of the defense medical examiner, Dr. Schwartz. The Industrial Accident Board accepted the opinion of Dr. Crain over that of Dr. Schwartz because Dr. Schwartz did not give proper consideration to the fact that our client was suffering from, and receiving treatment for, a significant low back injury at the same time. Dr. Crain, on the other hand, testified that, in his experience, in trauma cases, it often happens that when a patient has a lot of pain in one body part, they may not immediately recognize pain in other parts (even to the point of fractures). Dr. Crain also pointed out, competently, that a knee injury, like a torn meniscus, might not become evident until the patient tries to do activities with it. As Dr. Crain noted, our client was very limited in her activities in her injuries due to her low back injuries. In the end, the Industrial Accident Board found that our client’s symptomatic right knee condition was causally related to the November 16, 2021 work event and further found that the right knee treatment was reasonable and necessary. Accordingly, the Industrial Accident Board ordered the worker’s compensation insurance company to reimburse our firm for Dr. Crain’s expert witness fee and, in addition, awarded an attorney’s fee to our firm. (Truitt v. Open Systems Healthcare, Hearing No.: 1519144 Date of Decision: August 29, 2022)
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