DIANE E. BERHOW, Employee/Appellant,
v.
POLARIS INDUS., INC., SELF-INSURED/SEDGWICK JAMES OF MINN., Employer.
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
January 29, 1999
HEADNOTES
PERMANENT
PARTIAL DISABILITY - DEPRESSION. Substantial evidence
supports the compensation judge's decision that the
employee did not prove entitlement to a permanent partial
disability rating for her depression pursuant to Minn. R.
5223.0360, subp. 7.D.(4), and there was a lack of evidence of
objective findings to support a Weber rating.
Affirmed.
Determined by Hefte, J., Wilson, J., and Wheeler, C.J.
Compensation Judge: Carol A. Eckersen
OPINION
RICHARD C. HEFTE, Judge
The
employee appeals from the compensation judge's denial of
her claim of additional permanent partial disability benefits
for her psychological condition. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
Diane
E. Berhow, the employee, sustained a work-related injury on
June 21, 1995, while working for the self-insured employer,
Polaris Industries, Inc. The injury occurred when a
pallet fell, hitting the employee's left ankle and
breaking open a surgical wound on her left ankle. The
employee had a cyst surgically removed from her left ankle a
week prior to her work injury. The cyst was not from a
work-related incident. A metal staple from the pallet
penetrated the wound in the employee's left ankle.
Thereafter,
the healing of the wound to the employee's left ankle
became a significant and continuing problem. The wound
became infected and would not close. In September 1995,
her local treating surgeon, Dr. Frederic Taylor, M.D.
referred the employee to Dr. Robert Clayburgh of the Grand
Forks Clinic. Dr. Clayburgh initially treated the
employee by excising the wound in the employee's ankle;
however, thereafter the employee's pain and draining from
her left ankle continued. On January 29, 1996, Dr.
Clayburgh did an exploration and biopsy of the wound area of
the employee's the left ankle. Although Dr. James
Hargraves of the Infectious Disease Department of the Grand
Forks Clinic saw the employee and prescribed a treatment of
antibiotics for what he diagnosed as "left leg
osteomyelitis," of the employee's left leg, the lack
of healing of the employee's wound in her left ankle did
not resolve.
In
March of 1996, physical therapy was prescribed for the
employee's left ankle and she was then seen by Dr.
Charles Guernsey for pain management. He diagnosed a
left distal dystrophy syndrome, also referred to as reflex
sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) syndrome. A sympathetic
blockade of the employee's ankle by an indwelling
catheter and a percutaneous placement of a lumbar epidural
catheter for intermittent bolus of local anesthetics was done
and then repeated in June of...