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Thomas v. Irving Place Rehabilitation Care Center11/1/2000
ke a detailed argument concerning the compensability of a mental injury caused by a physical injury, and point out that the plaintiff never claimed to be entitled to benefits as a result of any type of mental injury, the flaw in defendants' argument is that the judgment does not award benefits for a mental injury. Instead, the judgment merely orders psychological testing based on the following testimony from Dr. Jones' deposition:
The only thing I would do is get some psychological testing or counseling, and she may need to be treated emotionally to deal with this, the problem she is having. She may be experiencing pain from an emotional standpoint, but I did not find any evidence to support her pain from an organic standpoint.
We also observe that claimant testified she had become depressed from "the state of this illness," and that she had to take anti-depressant medication because she was "used to being independent and doing for [herself]."
In essence, the WCJ was neither ordering the defendants to pay for psychological treatment for claimant nor concluding that claimant was suffering from a mental injury caused by her physical injury. The judgment simply reflects the judge's concern that claimant may need psychological counseling. We find that the order for testing to rule out that possibility was not an abuse of discretion under the circumstances.
CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the judgment is affirmed. Costs of this appeal shall be assessed equally to the claimant and the defendants.
AFFIRMED.
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