No. 05561795 (1999). EMPLOYEE: Maria Pavao.

• Case Date: February 17, 1999
• Court: Massachusetts

Massachusetts Workers Compensation 1999. No. 05561795 (1999). EMPLOYEE: Maria Pavao COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS EMPLOYEE: Maria Pavao EMPLOYER: Chase Collections INSURER: Arbella Indemnity Insurance Co.BOARD NO. 05561795REVIEWING BOARD DECISION (Judges Wilson, Smith and Smith)APPEARANCES Susan A. Fiore, Esq., for the employee Michael W. Morrissey, Esq., and Christopher J. Bradford, Esq., for the insurer WILSON, J. Maria Pavao appeals from a decision in which an administrative judge denied and dismissed her claim for workers' compensation benefits arising from an alleged November 20, 1995 work injury to her back. For the reasons that follow, we reverse the decision and recommit the case. The fifty-three year old Portuguese speaking employee has worked as a sewing machine operator in the clothing manufacturing business all of her vocational life. She worked forty hours a week for the employer from November 1989 until March 1996, and was paid on a piece work basis. Her duties consisted of taking dresses from a bundle on her left side, running them through the sewing machine to put in a zipper, and then placing the completed items on the right. When she completed a bundle she would retie it and place it in a box on the floor. She sewed one hundred to two hundred zippers per day. Ms. Pavao performed her work in a seated position. (Dec. 4-5.) On or about November 20, 1995, the employee began to feel pins and needles in her left leg while working. She had experienced low back pain radiating down her left leg at intermittent times prior to the November 1995 occurrence. The employee continued to experience left leg symptoms with lower back pain after that November onset of pain. She saw her regular physician, Dr. John Costa, on January 16, 1996. The employee continued to work in pain until March 15, 1996. She underwent surgery on a herniated L5-S1 disc on March 26, 1996. (Dec. 5-6.) Ms. Pavao maintained that her back problems were work-related, and the insurer resisted the claim. The claim was denied at conference, and the employee appealed to a full evidentiary hearing. (Dec. 2.) A § 11A medical examination took place on January 30, 1997. The impartial physician opined that the employee suffered from a herniated L6-S1 disc, post-discectomy. The doctor conceded that the lack of any objective...