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Reed v. Arkansas Methodist Hospital9/27/2000
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
AFFIRMED
This appeal arises from a decision of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission finding that appellant, Mary Reed, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she sustained a compensable injury during the course and scope of her employment with appellee, Arkansas Methodist Hospital. Appellant's sole argument on appeal is that the Commission's decision is not supported by substantial evidence.
At a hearing held before the administrative law judge on February 23, 1999, appellant testified that she was forty-three years old and worked for appellee as a monitor tech and nurse's aide in July 1998. In July 1998, appellant worked the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift and was assigned to work "4 Central, the heart floor." Her job duties included taking blood pressures and temperatures, turning patients, and assisting patients. On the morning of July 15, 1998, at 4:00 a.m., appellant testified that she performed her regular job duties. At that time, appellant testified that she was the only aide on her assigned floor, but stated that another aide, Martha Tucker, was called from another floor to assist her. During one of her patient "turns," appellant testified that as she and Ms. Tucker attempted to pull a patient upward in bed, she "felt a pull" in her back. Thereafter, appellant gave the following account:
kinda slumped over some, and I told Martha, I said I think I've hurt my back or, you know, strained my back. And nothing else was said inside the patient's room. And after we finished our turns and all the work then, I went back up to the nurse's station. Then I had told the nurse in charge that I had hurt my back, or I had strained my back. And nothing else was said to that effect or anything.
Appellant testified that she felt the pull on the left side of her lower back and that her back began to hurt on the morning of the incident and to worsen on the morning of July 16, 1998. She testified that she worked her shift on July 16, 1998, and that she called her family physician, Dr. Michael Crawley, the following day. Appellant testified, however, that she wasn't able to see Dr. Crawley until July 24, 1998, and that she continued to work until that time. Appellant testified that when she informed the nurse in charge about her July 15 injury , she thought that the nurse she communicated with was Alissa Long. She also testified that from the time of her injury until she saw Dr. Crawley, she informed her supervisor, Sarah Hitt, and Marla Mosely, her shift coordinator who was on duty July 15, of her injury. Appellant further testified that she informed Johnny Butler, the nursing supervisor for appellee, of her injury during the same time frame in which she spoke with Hitt and Moseley. After being taken off work for one week by Dr. Crawley, appellant testified that she returned to work on August 3, 1998, and filled out an incident report on that day. Appellant testified that she attempted to fill out an incident report before she was seen by Dr. Crawley, but stated that the charge nurse on duty didn't know where the reports were located. Appellant also testified that she had problems with a flat tire , but couldn't recall whether her car problem occurred on July 16, 1998. She further testified that she couldn't recall the day that her family moved to a different residence, but stated that her back problems were present before the move and that "at the time we were moving, my husband and my son and his girlfriend had to do all the moving and the lifting cause I wasn't able to do that."
Martha Tucker testified that in July of 1998, she worked as a nurse's aide on the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m shift f
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