DONNA LASH, Employee/Appellant,
v.
WALKER SOUTHVIEW NURSING HOME and LUMBERMENS UNDERWRITING ALLIANCE, Employer-Insurer,
and
FAIRVIEW SOUTHDALE HOSP., Intervenor/Cross-Appellant,
and
JEFFREY GRONER, M.D., SUBURBAN RADIOLOGIC CONSULTANTS, LTD. and MEDICAL ADVANCED PAIN SPECIALISTS, Intervenors.
Minnesota Workers Compensation
Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals
May 3, 1999
HEADNOTES
PRACTICE
& PROCEDURE - REMAND; EVIDENCE. The appellant and
cross-appellant established that the compensation judge may
have overlooked certain material evidence which may have
affected the resolution of the finding from which appeal was
taken. Under these circumstances, a remand is required
for reconsideration.
Remanded.
Determined by Johnson, J., Wilson, J., and Wheeler, C.J.
Compensation Judge: Jeanne E. Knight
OPINION
STEVEN
D. WHEELER, Judge
The
appellant employee and cross-appellant intervenor Fairview
Southdale Hospital appeal from the compensation
judge's determination that the employee failed to prove
that she sustained a work-related Gillette
injury1 on or about May 27, 1997. We
remand.
BACKGROUND
The
employee, Donna Lash, was born in January 1948 and is
currently 51 years old. She is right-handed. In about
1973, the employee injured her right hand while hang gliding,
and fractured two fingers. This injury was treated by
surgery and post-surgical splinting of the right
hand. (T. 12, 21, 65-66.)
The
employee's initial work history included work as a motel
housekeeper, waitress and janitor. In February 1978 the
employee had an acute onset of numbness and tingling in the
median distribution of her right hand. She was then
working as a janitor for Lutheran Brotherhood. She was
medically diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. The
condition failed to respond to conservative therapy, and on
June 7, 1978 the employee underwent surgery in the form of a
right median nerve release and right ulnar nerve release at
the wrist. (T. 12-16, 21; Exh. 1.)
The
employee testified that, after recovery from the surgery, her
symptoms resolved and she did not require further
treatment. The employee did not return to janitorial
work following the surgery. Instead, she attended
Minneapolis Community College and studied accounting and
computers. After this, she worked for a time performing
accounting work. In about 1990, the employee began
studying to become a licensed practical nurse. She
started working as a nurse for Bryn Mawr Nursing Home in
March 1992. While working for Bryn Mawr, the employee
developed a ganglion on her left wrist which was surgically
removed. She testified that she had no permanent
restrictions or ongoing problems with her left wrist after
this surgery and returned to work in her job for Bryn
Mawr. She next worked as a full-time nurse for the
Crystal Lake nursing home, but after one year went on an
on-call status and began working part time at North Memorial
Hospital, using the on-call work at Crystal Lake to make up a
full-time job. She testified that she had no
difficulties with either her left or right hand in performing
the duties of these jobs. (T. 13-19, 63.)
On
March 19, 1997 the employee began working for the employer,
Walker Southview Nursing Home. Her duties were very
similar to those she had previously been performing,
particularly to those performed at the Bryn Mawr and Crystal
Lake nursing homes. One of the employee's duties was
to stock a medication cart and then push it along the hallway
on her floor of the nursing home and dispense medications to
the residents. The employee testified that the cart
weighed about 140 to 160 pounds. Customarily, the
employee was responsible for providing medications for the
patients in 10 to 12 rooms, although at times when the staff
was shorthanded she had to dispense medications to as many as
sixty residents. (T. 19-24.)
According
to the employee's testimony, by mid-May 1997, a few
months after starting work for the employer, she began to
experience difficulty with her right wrist, especially at the
base of the thumb. The soreness increased as she used
her right hand more, and she found pushing the medication
cart at work particularly uncomfortable. Other duties
which bothered her hand were twisting caps on medicine
bottles, pushing with the palm, reaching into bottom drawers
of the medication cart and trying to...
