33R-11WC. Robert Gadwah v. Ethan Allen.

CourtVermont
Vermont Workers Compensation 2011. 33R-11WC. Robert Gadwah v. Ethan Allen Robert Gadwah v. Ethan Allen(November 28, 2011)STATE OF VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF LABORRobert Gadwah v. Ethan AllenOpinion No. 33R-11WCBy: Phyllis Phillips, Esq. Hearing OfficerFor: Anne M. Noonan CommissionerState File No. P-09814RULING ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION Defendant seeks reconsideration of the Commissioner's October 20, 2011 Opinion and Order. It asserts that the evidence adduced at hearing was insufficient to support the Commissioner's ruling. I disagree. Having weighed and considered the evidence produced by both parties, I am convinced that that aspect of Claimant's 2009 surgery in which his L4-5 fusion was revised and corrected would not have been performed but for his 1999 injury. In reaching this conclusion, I accept as credible the testimony of both Claimant and his wife as to the ongoing nature of his symptoms from 1999 forward. I also accept Dr. Forrest's expert medical opinion, which established the necessary causal relationship between that aspect of the surgery and the 1999 injury to the required degree of medical certainty, as more credible than Dr. Levy's opinion. I also am convinced that Claimant's work at Weir Tree Farms did not contribute in any way to the need for surgical revision of the failed fusion at L4-5. In reaching this conclusion, I again accept Dr. Forrest's expert medical opinion as more credible than Dr. Levy's. Last, contrary to Defendant's assertion, my ruling did not go so far as to apportion the costs of the 2009 surgery between those attributable to...

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