Henry v. Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital, 010206 MIWC, 2017-218
| Case Date | January 02, 2006 |
| Court | Michigan |
While working in the operating room, lifting patients, felt pull and injury to right shoulder causing disability of the right shoulder.AMENDMENT Defendant moved to allege dual employment. Plaintiff objected because there were no records of dual employment. In addition, the Second Injury Fund – Dual Employment Provision was not a party to the case. Defendant’s motion was denied. STIPULATIONS The parties stipulated that, on January 28, 2002, plaintiff and defendant were subject to the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act, that defendant was self-insured, and that defendant employed plaintiff. Defendant left to proofs the issue of whether a personal injury arose out of and in the course of employment on January 28, 2002. Defendant denied that the disability is due to the alleged personal injury. Defendant stipulated to notice and claim. No dual employment was alleged. It was stipulated that plaintiff’s IRS filing status was single and plaintiff had no dependents. It was stipulated that the average weekly wage on the date of injury was $1,005.85. Defendant previously paid worker’s compensation from January 29, 2002, to June 6, 2005, at the rate of $516.48. It was left to proofs whether that was the proper rate. It was left to proofs whether plaintiff received any benefits which would be subject to coordination or offset. WITNESSES TESTIFYING AT TRIAL PLAINTIFF Paula J. Henry DEFENDANT Brian Rich WITNESSES TESTIFYING BY DEPOSITION PLAINTIFF Robert A. Teitge, M.D. DEFENDANT Paul Drouillard, D.O. EXHIBITS PLAINTIFF 1) Deposition testimony of Robert Teitge, M.D. 2) POH Medical Center records (ER/employee health) 3) Medical records of Shivajee Nallamothu, M.D. 4) Medical records of Dr. Thomas Perkins 5) Medical records of Dr. Field, Mississippi Sports Medicine & Orthopedic DEFENDANT A) Deposition testimony of Robert Drouillard, D.O. B) Photos Plaintiff, Paula Jean Henry, was living at 16879 Crystal Dr., Macomb, MI 48042, at the time of hearing. She was homeless and was living with her parents. She has been staying with her son, mother and others. Plaintiff was born in Detroit on xxx. She had a right knee operation at age 12. She had a plate installed in the left foot in 1999 or 2000. She had no accidents or injuries involving her shoulder. Education, training and experience -- She is a high school graduate and attended nursing school at Macomb County Community College. She graduated with an associate’s degree in nursing in May 1986. She is a registered nurse, but her license is lapsed. It expired on March 31, 2005. She is on inactive status. She is not licensed in other states either. Her licenses in Tennessee and Mississippi expired around 1997. Plaintiff took courses at Oakland University toward a bachelor of science degree in nursing. This was one or two semesters, part-time, in the early 90s. She also attended Rochester College for an accelerated program, every weekend for three semesters ending in 1999. She was working toward a bachelor’s degree in counseling. She had about 66 hours of credit at Macomb County Community College. She has a total of 3½ years of school. She last went to school in 1999. She would have to re-start classes now. She has no other degrees. Before nursing, in 1986, she worked for a generic drug company in Detroit and Romeo, for seven years. She helped fill out new drug applications. She ran tablet presses, purchased chemicals, and did sales. She earned $6.00 plus an hour. When she graduated from nursing school, Plaintiff worked at Crittenton Hospital and Hutzel Hospital as an ICU nurse. She also worked for an agency as an ICU nurse for different hospitals in area. She did ICU on and off until 1993. An ICU nurse would have one to three patients for whom she was 100 per cent responsible. She would have to take care of medications, turn the patients when necessary and change the beds. She would also be responsible for ventilator care, changing dressings, bathing the patient, hanging piggybacks and dialysis bags. This involved lifting, pushing, and pulling. She testified that she can no longer do that job. She has not done ICU nursing in the past 15 years. Plaintiff testified she has never done floor nursing. Plaintiff was in the Mississippi National Guard from 1990 to 2003. She did her National Guard duty on weekends. She got exempted from duty a lot. In 2003, she made $8300 in the National Guard. She does not know how much she was getting per day. It was a flat rate. When she joined, she did two weeks of active duty in 1990. She had physicals every six years. She went into the Guard as a second lieutenant and later became a captain in the nurse corps. In December 2003, she could not continue as a captain because she needed a bachelor’s degree. When she worked for Defendant, she did not go to the Guard for the summers. When she was on an 8-hour shift, she flew down for Guard duty on weekends. From 1990 to 1997 she was an operating room staff nurse in different hospitals in Mississippi and Tennessee. She was a heart transplant nurse at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, making $19 an hour. She worked at the Baptist Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, making $19 an hour. She also worked in Memphis, Tennessee, for the same wage. From 1994 to1997, Plaintiff was a traveling nurse, working through an agency. She was always a surgical nurse. She was an independent contractor working in Mississippi and Tennessee. She was paid $30 an hour plus mileage and no other benefits. The job was similar to jobs at Defendant and St. Joseph Hospital. Plaintiff worked at St. Joseph Hospital Pontiac from March of 1997 to July 1999 as a staff nurse and clinical leader in the operating room. The clinical leader is in charge of the staff, makes schedules, helps run the board for surgeries, arranges for lunch and break relief, and is on call if somebody fails to show up for work. She worked 60 to 80 hours a week. This was a salaried position. She was paid $30 an hour for 40 hours only. As a clinical leader at St. Joseph Hospital, she worked from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. They needed a charge nurse on afternoons. She could do the job and go to school. The other shift nurse was fired and Plaintiff ended up covering both shifts. It was a bad situation. She took a buyout because the job was downsizing, it was too demanding, and there were problems with staffing and unions. Plaintiff testified that she left St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1999 and went to Rochester College to study for a bachelor’s degree in counseling. She continued there for a short time and then went to work for Defendant. The program was every weekend. She was on call so much that she could not go to college. After she got hurt, there was medical care and therapy. She could not drive and she needed transportation. She had to pay for school herself. She could not continue school due to her injury. In July 1999, Plaintiff hired in at Defendant as a staff nurse in the operating room. Her last day of work there was January 28, 2002. The pay at Defendant was in the $20,000s. She was not a clinical leader at Defendant, because it required a bachelor’s degree and she did not have one. Description of job duties -- As an operating room nurse, she would stand 95 per cent of time. For any surgery, her first task would be to gather equipment for the operating room table. She got the equipment from a case cart, which was as tall as...
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