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Bussell v. Burlington Industries2/16/2000
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
AFFIRMED
Appellant, David Bussell, appeals from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission which held that appellant failed to prove that he sustained an aggravation or new injury for which appellees are responsible. On appeal, appellant argues that the Commission's findings are not supported by substantial evidence. Specifically he contends that the Commission erred in finding that he sustained a recurrence rather than an aggravation of his pre-existing condition. He also argues that, regardless of the compensability of his claim, appellees should pay his initial medical expenses because they summoned an ambulance to the scene. We affirm.
On June 10, 1991, appellant underwent surgery at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, for a ruptured disc that he sustained while serving on active duty during Desert Storm. After the surgery, appellant was given a forty-percent service-connected disability rating. In November 1991, appellant was released from active duty, and he returned to work for appellee Burlington Industries. Since that time he has been on a pain-management program and takes a series of three medications daily for pain. Between November 1991 and February 1997, appellant returned to a doctor's office three or four times with back pain and received shots for muscle spasms. He does not know what causes these spasms.
On February 11, 1997, appellant went to work as usual. He bent over Raymond Pardell's desk, and as he did, had a pain in his back that caused him to go to the floor in pain. Appellant said that as he was pointing out something to ask Pardell, the pain hit, and he immediately went to the floor. He was on the floor approximately thirty minutes and was subsequently taken by ambulance to the hospital where x-rays were taken. Appellant testified that he did not want them to give him medication or do anything else, because he wanted to go to the VA Hospital to see whether he had "blown another disc." Later that day, after the pain had eased, appellant's wife took him to the VA Hospital where he was treated with some pills and a shot for pain, and he was told not to do anything until the pain subsided. He returned home and was released to return to work on February 26. He said that he had no pain during the week preceding the incident, and he felt fine that morning. The medical evidence in the record reveals that appellant received treatment for muscle spasm at the Monticello Medical Clinic from April 9-27, 1993. On March 8, 1994, appellant again reported to the clinic complaining of back pain. Appellant was also treated at the clinic for lower back pain on September 5, 1995.
On this evidence, an administrative law judge awarded benefits finding that appellant sustained a temporary aggravation of a pre- existing condition, as a result of a specific incident which required medical services and resulted in disability. The full Commission reversed the law judge and found that appellant suffered a recurrence of his pre-existing, non-compensable injury. The Commission noted that this was not the first time appellant experienced an acute onset of back pain after undergoing surgery in 1991. There was documentary evidence as well as testimony that appellant reported to his treating physician several times with an acute onset of back pain and requested medical attention. The Commission found nothing out of the ordinary with regard to appellant's activities on the morning of February 11 that would rise to the level of an independent intervening cause, and the Commission found that appellant's onset of pain that morning was the natural and probable result of his prior injury. The Commission also found that appellees
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