JOEL ROGERS, Claimant
v.
THE WALDINGER CORPORATION, Employer,
and,
LIBERTY INSURANCE CORP., Insurance Carrier, Defendants.
No. 5059762
Iowa Workers Compensation
Before the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commissioner
February 18, 2020
Head
Note Nos. 1108.50, 1402.40
ARBITRATION DECISION
ERIN
Q. PALS DEPUTY WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER
STATEMENT
OF THE CASE
Joel
Rogers, claimant, filed a petition in arbitration seeking
workers’ compensation benefits from The Waldinger
Corporation, employer and Liberty Insurance Corp., insurance
carrier as defendants. Hearing was held on November 5, 2019,
in Des Moines, Iowa.
The
parties filed a hearing report at the commencement of the
arbitration hearing. On the hearing report, the parties
entered into various stipulations. All of those stipulations
were accepted and are hereby incorporated into this
arbitration decision and no factual or legal issues relative
to the parties’ stipulations will be raised or
discussed in this decision. In their post-hearing brief
defendants state that they are not asserting a notice
defense. The parties are now bound by their stipulations.
Claimant, Joel Rogers was the only witness to testify live at
trial. The evidentiary record also includes Joint Exhibits
JE1-JE5, Claimant’s Exhibits 1-2, and Defendants’
Exhibits A-M. All exhibits were received without objection.
The evidentiary record closed at the conclusion of the
arbitration hearing. On December 3, 2019, defendants filed a
motion to reopen the hearing record because an October 24,
2018 letter from Dr. Smith was inadvertently left out of the
exhibits. Claimant filed a notice of non-resistance. The
motion was granted on December 18, 2019. Dr. Smith’s
letter was admitted into the record and is marked as
Defendants’ Motion to Reopen Hearing Record.
The
parties submitted post-hearing briefs on December 6, 2019, at
which time the case was fully submitted to the undersigned.
ISSUE
The
parties submitted the following issue for resolution:
1.
Whether claimant sustained permanent disability as a result
of the stipulated December 31, 2014, work injury? If so, the
extent of industrial disability claimant sustained.
FINDINGS
OF FACT
The
undersigned, having considered all of the evidence and
testimony in the record, finds: Claimant, Joel Rogers,
injured his back when he assisted in lifting a 5’ x
8’ sheet metal damper at a construction site in
Altoona, Iowa on December 31, 2014. As soon as Rogers grabbed
the damper and picked it up, his back gave out instantly. He
had two knots in the middle of his back, approximately 4 or 5
inches below his shoulder blades. Rogers was taken to the
onsite paramedic. He was then directed to see doctor Richard
S. Bratkiewicz, M.D. (Testimony)
On
December 31, 2014, Rogers saw Dr. Bratkiewicz at Methodist
Occupational Health and Wellness. He reported that he injured
his midback at the Facebook jobsite while lifting a large
object weighing over 100 pounds. Rogers felt as though he was
not making progress. His pain was mainly in the paraspinous
thoracic back, an area that he had never injured. The
doctor’s assessment was midback strain injury. Dr.
Bratkiewicz recommended physical therapy. He also prescribed
Flexeril, an injection, and ibuprofen. Rogers was restricted
to lifting no more than 5 pounds and he was to avoid twisting
his back. (JE1, pages 1-2)
On
January 27, 2015, Rogers went to Iowa Ortho where he saw Todd
J. Harbach, M.D. His pain was in his middle back, lower back,
and gluteal area. He denied any radiation of pain. Rogers
reported that he had back pain off and on his entire life.
His most recent injury was December 31, 2014 when he was
lifting a damper. His pain was now worse with kneeling,
lifting, drilling, or climbing. Physical therapy had not
helped much. He admitted to not doing his home exercises. His
pain was described as a constant ache with some sharper
episodes and tingling that went into his thoracic spine and
radiated around his chest wall on occasion. His pain was 90
percent back and 10 percent bilateral lower extremity pain.
Dr. Harbach recommended an MRI of the lumbar and thoracic
spines. He restricted his activities until after the MRI.
(JE2, pp. 3-4)
The
lumbar MRI was performed on January 29, 2015. The
radiologist’s impression was mild degenerative disc
bulging at ¶ 4-5 and L5-S1. There was no frank disc
herniation, spinal stenosis or lumbar nerve root impingement.
(JE3, pp. 79-80)
Rogers
returned to see Dr. Harbach on February 3, 2015 for follow-up
on the MRI. He continued to have a tremendous amount of mid
and low back pain. He begins his construction job at 6:30
a.m. and by the 9:30 a.m. break he is hurting pretty badly,
and by lunchtime he is pretty much finished. The assessment
was degenerative disc disease lumbar, lumbar spondylosis,
thoracic spondylosis, back pain, and obesity. Dr. Harbach
stated, “He has degenerative changes that are chronic...