Michelle A. Grumann Applicant
Aurora Health Care, Inc. Employer
Sentry Cas. Co. Insurer
No. 2014-023613
Wisconsin Workers Compensation
State of Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission
August 7, 2020
Atty.
Travis K. Glandt.
Atty.
Roland C. Cafaro.
WORKER’S
COMPENSATION DECISION
1
Michael H. Gillick, Chairperson.
Order
The
commission affirms the decision of the administrative law
judge. Accordingly, the application for benefits is
dismissed.
By the
Commission:
David
B. Falstad, Commissioner, Georgia E. Maxwell, Commissioner.
Procedural
Posture
The
applicant filed a hearing application in January of 2017
seeking compensation for a right hand and wrist injury, with
a date of injury of July 20, 2014. An administrative law
judge for the Department of Administration, Division of
Hearings and Appeals, Office of Worker’s Compensation
Hearings (Division), heard the matter on October 7, 2019, and
issued a decision dated January 3, 2020, dismissing the
application for benefits. The applicant filed a timely
petition for review.
Prior
to the hearing, the parties conceded jurisdictional facts and
an average weekly wage of $430.00. The issues are whether the
applicant sustained a compensable wrist injury on July 20,
2014, and if so, the nature and extent of the
applicant’s disability and the respondent’s
liability for medical expenses. The commission has considered
the petition and the positions of the parties, and has
independently reviewed the evidence. Based on its de
novo review, the commission affirms the decision of the
administrative law judge and makes the following:
Findings
of Fact and Conclusions of Law
As
supplemented by the commission’s memorandum
opinion,
2 the commission makes the same findings
of fact and conclusions of law as stated in the
administrative law judge’s decision and incorporates
them by reference into the commission’s decision.
Memorandum
Opinion
The
applicant, who was born in 1974, worked in housekeeping for
the employer for about five months providing cleaning
services in the hospital. She alleges that she injured her
right wrist when she was wiping down a bedrail in an
emergency room, which she claims resulted in a ligament tear
in her wrist. Despite two surgeries, the applicant has not
recovered and now has complex regional pain syndrome in her
upper extremity with a significant permanent disability. The
respondent previously paid some temporary total disability,
but now denies a work injury, and it alleges that the
payments made were made by mistake of fact.
The
Applicant’s Prior Medical Treatment
The
applicant had some prior medical treatment that involved her
right wrist. In 2006, the applicant had a right wrist injury
when she pinched her wrist in a door frame while moving a
couch; she was assessed with a right wrist
contusion.
3 On January 5, 2012, a neurology note
indicates that the applicant has probable carpal tunnel on
the right.
4 On April 15, 2013, the applicant
treated for numbness in the left arm, face, and leg, which
was suspected to be from a complex migraine.
[5] An outpatient
progress note on July 26, 2013, notes that the applicant had
pain in her right forearm.
6 The applicant also treated at the
Mayo Clinic for headaches beginning in 2013, which included
complaints of right-sided numbness
paresthesias.
7
The
applicant had a pre-employment medical exam on February 7,
2014. For her medical history, the applicant listed her prior
medical conditions, including “wrist/hand/numbness from
carpal tunnel.”
8
On June
18, 2014, about a month before the a leged injury,
the applicant had a follow-up exam for diabetes. At that
time, Colleen A. Marx, NP, noted, “She has right wrist
pain, numbness and tingling that radiates from her hand to
her face. She has an appointment with the Mayo Clinic for a
repeat MRI of the brain and visit in July. She notes that the
wrist pain is there daily.” The note also indicated,
“Worsening right hand numbness the last 6 weeks. Thumb,
index and middle fingers numb most of the time. Has pain that
radiates up the right arm and into her shoulder area and face
almost feels numb at times. Wrist splint has not
helped.”
9
The
applicant testified that prior to the work incident on July
20, 2014, she did not have any problem with her right wrist,
and she was able to perform all of her duties. She did not
have any swelling in her wrist when she went into work that
day, and she did not have any problems with her entire upper
extremity or any health problems on the day of the alleged
incident.
10 She testified that she also did not
have any restrictions or any problems at all with her left
wrist.
11 On cross-examination, she
acknowledged that she had had a diagnosis of carpal tunnel
syndrome in 2013, but she indicated that by February of 2014,
her carpal tunnel symptoms had resolved.
12 However, also on
cross-examination, when confronted with the medical record
noting wrist pain in June of 2014, the applicant admitted
that she was still experiencing wrist pain and that she had
been experiencing it for a period of six weeks at that
time.
13
The
Applicant’s Alleged Injury and Medical Treatment
On
Sunday, July 20, 2014, the applicant was working her normal
second shift. At around 4:00 p.m., she was cleaning a room in
the emergency department when she alleges she injured her
right wrist. The applicant finished cleaning the room with
her left hand. She thought she had just sprained her wrist,
so when she went home, she put ice on it and took
ibuprofen.
14 When her wrist did not feel better
the next day, she showed it to her supervisor and she was
advised to seek medical treatment.
15
On an
Employee Incident Report dated July 22, 2014, the applicant
described what she was doing when she injured her right wrist
as “washing bedrails of Emergency Department Bed, Room
#6” and “Believe it was a twisting motion
cleaning the rail.”
16 On the Patient’s
Statement of Injury for Aurora Health Care dated July 22,
2014, the applicant described how the injury occurred as
“I was cleaning & disinfecting a bed in Room 6 in
the Emergency Room and was cleaning the bedrail and when I
made an upward motion to clean the rail, I felt a ‘fire
like’ spread from my whole arm but most pain is in my
wrist.”
17
The
applicant treated with Dr. Dennis B. Phillips, D.O., on July
22, 2014, for an initial evaluation of her pain and swelling
in her right wrist. Dr. Phillips described the work incident:
07/20/14 she was a sign [sic] in the afternoon to clean the
emergency department. While cleaning room #6, she was using a
cloth with her gloved hand to clean the bed rail with a
forceful upward motion and had immediate onset of
“fire” type pain around the distal upper
extremity, mostly involving the right hand and wrist,
especially the lateral/ulnar portion was then immediate
swelling in the ulnar wrist region. The swelling also
involves the distal third of the forearm. The remainder of
her work shift, she utilize[d] mostly her left hand/arm for
the workplace activities that she needed to accomplish. When
this was reported to Employee Health, it was recommended she
have further evaluation and Occupational
Health.18
Dr.
Phillips noted that the applicant denied any previous injury
to the right wrist or hand, but noted she had fractured her
right forearm in third grade. He assessed a strain of the
right wrist, the wrist ulnar flexors and wrist dorsal
compartments/extensors still had swelling and decreased range
of motion. He noted, “Based on this evaluation, it is
my current opinion, more likely than not, that these
conditions are determined to be
work-related.”
19 X-rays of the wrist were negative,
and Dr. Phillips referred the applicant to a hand specialist.
On July
23, 2014, the applicant treated with Dr. Jagdeep S. Sodhi,
M.D. He described the work incident as: “cleaning a
bedside rail and twisted the wrong way. She felt intense
burning sensation and intense pain shoot through the forearm
into the wrist. After a while, she noticed a lot of swelling
and a lot of pain. There is tingling and numbness in the
hands/fingers.”
20 He recommended prednisone for
four weeks and a wrist splint.
On July
29, 2014, the applicant provided a recorded statement to the
insurance carrier. She described what happened at the time
the injury occurred:
Ahm, I was in, ahm, one of the, ahm, emergency department
rooms, room 6, and I
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