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Van Meter v. Whirlpool Corp.12/13/2000
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
AFFIRMED
Carolyn Van Meter appeals a decision of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission finding that she failed to prove that she sustained a compensable lower-back injury . On appeal, she argues that the Commission's decision is not supported by substantial evidence. We affirm.
In attempting to establish that her lower-back complaints were compensable, Van Meter presented proof relating to both gradual-onset and specific-incident theories. The latter theory involved a fall at work that Van Meter suffered on July 30, 1998.
At her hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), Van Meter testified that she had worked for Whirlpool for twenty-five years, in a variety of different jobs. For the first thirteen years, she worked on the door line, driving screws with an airgun to attach door panels. Van Meter stated that over time, the air guns were made lighter and easier to use, but estimated that they weighed two-to-three pounds. She was then briefly tasked with counting and keeping loading bins supplied with parts, before accepting a position where her job consisted of putting on labels. The later position required her to stand for prolonged periods of time, but required no bending or stooping. Van Meter then was tasked with driving screws to install the door handles on "top mount" refrigerators, which she claimed was hard on her neck and arms because it involved working overhead. Next she was tasked with installing butter and utility bins, which she described as an extremely fast, repetitive job, but one that did not require heavy lifting. Over the final five to six years at Whirlpool, she served as a floor inspector, which involved "a lot of walking," pushing around boxes and big plastic or wood boxes called "KD's," occasional lifting of parts, pushing cabinets that were on rollers, and frequent bending, stooping, and walking on rollers. The floor inspector job also required that she relieve line workers for bathroom breaks and fill out paperwork.
Van Meter admitted that she began to have problems with her back before her July 1998 fall at work and that she had sought treatment from Dr. Craft approximately five days before the fall. According to Van Meter, her fall occurred when she caught her shoe lace on a nail sticking out from a skid. She fell on her right side, breaking blood vessels and injuring her left shoulder. Van Meter immediately reported the mishap to the company nurse who put ice on the broken blood vessels and wrapped her knee in an ace bandage, and sent her back to work. Van Meter asserted that, at the time, she was taking an anti-inflammatory for her back, which seemed to help. According to Van Meter, for a while, she did not notice any symptoms, but her back gradually began to hurt, steadily worsening until January 9, 1999, when she claimed she could barely walk into work. She claimed that she approached the company health nurse about filing a workers' compensation claim; however, the nurse refused to help her because when she fell, she only complained about broken blood vessels and an injured shoulder. Van Meter stated that she went to Dr. Charles Craft on her own, and he decided that her lower-back complaints were "probably work-related." Dr. Craft took her off work from January 9, 1999, through June 10, 1999, when she returned to work. She claimed that she continues to be treated by several physicians, with medication and acupuncture, and that she suffered from numbness in her legs and pain in her back. Van Meter stated that she consulted with a back surgeon, Dr. Joseph Queeny, who looked at her MRI and stated that he could not help her with back surgery. Van Meter claimed that since the onset
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