Similar Facts with Far Different Results
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Two past Court of Appeals decisions illustrate how unpredictable workers' compensation cases can be.
A frequent issue in workers' compensation cases is whether or not the injury suffered by a claimant while at work is an "accident."
In order to give rise to workers' compensation benefits, the injury which occurred at work must be the result of an accident.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has held that a nursing assistant who injured her shoulder during a patient's diaper change did not arise from an "accident" because changing elderly patients diapers was a regular part of the nursing assistant's duties. As a result, the nursing assistant could not recover workers' compensation benefits.
In another case, also from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the court determined that a nurse who was turning an intensive care patient and injured her shoulder in the process was compensable. The distinction between these two cases is that the Court of Appeals found that in the compensable case, the patient's ventilator tube dislodged unexpectedly and required immediate attention from the nurse. The nurse injured her shoulder while turning the patient and reinserting the ventilator. The Court of Appeals allowed the nurse to recover workers' compensation benefits. They reasoned that the nurse had never experienced a ventilator tube detaching from the receptacle in the patient's throat while turning the patient and that the event completely surprised her. The nurse had further testified that she knew of no other nurses who had experienced a similar event and that, during her training, she had never been informed that such an incident could occur. The plaintiff's supervisor testified that instances of ventilator tube detaching are uncommon.
The two cases described above, while arising from very similar facts, resulted in completely different results. The nurse recovered; the nursing assistant did not.
These two cases point out the complex nature of workers' compensation cases and the fine line which sometimes separates a winning case from a losing case.
Fortunately, with respect to back injuries, the claimant does not have to prove an injury by accident but only has to show a "specific traumatic event." An example of a specific traumatic event occurs when a claimant is lifting a heavy object and feels a "catch" in his back. That type of injury would be deemed compensable by the Industrial Commission.
If you or a loved one have a question about a workers' compensation injury, please contact us by filling out the form below.
For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Workplace Injuries and Discrimination.