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Authement v. Wal-Mart9/26/2003
ral steroid injections. Dr. Guidry referred Ms. Authement to Dr. Mike Haydel for the injections and advised Ms. Authement that she should not return to work at that time. After having undergone a series of three injections, Ms. Authement returned to see Dr. Guidry on February 7, 2002. Ms. Authement indicated the injections had not helped her, and she was still having neck pain radiating to her right arm. Dr. Guidry recommended that Ms. Authement undergo an EMG and nerve conduction study to determine whether she had nerve root impingement. According to Dr. Guidry's records, these tests were never completed.
Dr. Guidry retired in March of 2002, at which time Ms. Authement began seeing Dr. Larry Haydel, another orthopedic surgeon associated with Dr. Guidry's office. On March 26, 2002, Ms. Authement indicated to Dr. Haydel that the pain in her neck had not improved any. He prescribed pain medication and an anti-inflammatory and advised Ms. Authement to return in six weeks for another evaluation. Ms. Authement returned on May 24, 2002, with complaints of neck pain radiating into her right arm. At that time, Dr. Haydel discussed options available to Ms. Authement, including an anterior cervical fusion. When Ms. Authement was last seen by Dr. Haydel on July 9, 2002, she reported no improvement in her symptoms. Dr. Haydel again discussed the possibility of surgery with Ms. Authement. There is no indication in the record that Ms. Authement ever returned to see Dr. Haydel after this July 2002 visit.
At Wal-Mart's request, Ms. Authement was evaluated for a second opinion on February 7, 2002, by another orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John P. Sweeney. According to Dr. Sweeney's report, he examined Ms. Authement and reviewed all of her medical records to date in preparing his report. Dr. Sweeney found that Ms. Authement had an " ntervertebral disc protrusion at C5-6 with neck pain non radicular." In his letter to Peggy Horton, Claims Manager for Claims Management, Inc. ("CMI"), Dr. Sweeney reported further as follows:
You have asked me to address her current mechanism of injury in reference to a causal relationship to an incident of July 05, 2001. Without a specific injury it is difficult to correlate the disc protrusion at C5-6 with a certain work related event. Your letter dated January 29th, 2002 to me, states that she had no specific injury but discomfort to her shoulder from continuous lifting, pushing and pulling. She reports the same history to me now and without a specific traumatic event I cannot ascribe her current C5-6 disc findings to a single work related event. In fact, unless there is a history that she is not telling me I cannot describe any particular single event as the cause of her disc protrusion. Many cervical disc protrusions occur insidiously and cannot be attributed to a single isolated traumatic event. ... Dr. Haydel's treatment of her neck pain with epidural steroid injections as recommended by Dr. Guidry is appropriate. I did not find evidence of a pre-existing condition contributing to Ms. Authement's symptoms. Please note however that this conclusion is based on Ms. Authement providing me with the history that she had absolutely never hurt her neck in the past or had any prior diagnostic studies of her neck. I do not have any information that would lead me to the conclusion that this disc problem is pre-existing July 05, 2001. In answer to your question regarding maximum medical improvement, it has now been over six months since her "injury" and she says that her symptoms have plateaued, that is she has not made any significant improvement over the last couple of months and has not responded to therapy or epidural steroid injections. I do not feel that surgical treatment is nece
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