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Thornton v. Louisiana Plastic Industries12/15/2004
urgical intervention, but that Mr. Thornton felt that surgery was the only likely avenue for his long-term recovery which might allow him to return to his work of long-haul truck driving. Specifically, in her first ruling on the surgery issue, the WCJ impressed upon Mr. Thornton that she understood his situation, but wanted him to try physical therapy before resorting to surgical intervention because two of the physicians believed that therapy was the appropriate route of treatment. The WCJ clearly left open the possibility that surgery may well be necessary if the physical therapy did not satisfactorily relieve Mr. Thornton's pain.
After five weeks of physical therapy, Mr. Thornton's condition was not significantly improved. In this regard, the final notation in Dr. Bailey's records, on July 23, 2003, states that Mr. Thornton "has been religious in carrying out his physical therapy. . . has lost weight and feels as if his strength has improved . . . still has a backache." Despite the fact that Mr. Thornton's condition was not improved, Dr. Holladay maintained that surgery was not his recommendation, but provided no alternative treatment plan. On the other hand, Dr. Bailey's assessment of Mr. Thornton at that time was that " ven though it has been the insistence of thirds (sic) parties involved that he not have additional management, i.e. surgery, I still feel that this is the only way he has an opportunity to improve." He further noted that Mr. Thornton "totally agrees with this and he has been very faithful in carrying out this prolonged approach to no avail."
In Longoria, supra, we explained:
There can be competing reasonable views of the medical evidence from which the trier-of-fact may choose, regardless of whether the evidence involves the opinion of a specialist or the treating physician. The deference, therefore, to be afforded by the appellate court must be based upon the manifest error doctrine.
The WCJ listened, reviewed and weighed all of the medical evidence on more than one occasion in this case. As previously stated, she initially ordered that Mr. Thornton attempt the more conservative treatment route before allowing surgical intervention, which he did willingly and diligently, but without success. Ultimately, the WCJ credited and accepted Mr. Thornton's and Dr. Bailey's testimony that the surgery was necessary for his improvement. Based on the totality of the record, we cannot say that the WCJ's decision to accept this testimony over that of Dr. Brown and Dr. Holladay was manifestly erroneous.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Workers' Compensation Judge allowing Kenneth Thornton to have the lumbar surgical procedure performed at Louisiana Plastic Industries, Inc.'s expense is affirmed. Costs of appeal are assessed against Louisiana Plastic Industries, Inc.
AFFIRMED.
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