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Longoria v. Brookshire Grocery Co.12/19/2003
PEATROSS, J., dissents in part with written reasons.
This worker 's compensation case involves a claim for medical expenses for a back injury which occurred in 1992. In 1995, the claimant began receiving pain management treatment involving trigger point injections and narcotic medications. The claimant and her medical providers presented evidence that this treatment allowed her to remain employed and function without the pain she previously experienced. Although the employer initially made payments for the pain management treatments, it discontinued payments after four years following an independent review of the claimant's condition by a neurosurgeon. Following a trial, the worker 's compensation judge ("WCJ") ruled that the employer's discontinuance of medical payments was inappropriate and rendered judgment in favor of claimant for the payment of medical benefits, penalties, and attorney's fees. From our review of the medical record in this case, we amend the WCJ's ruling to delete the award of a $500 penalty and to provide for legal interest from the date of judgment and trial costs, and as amended, we affirm the judgment.
Facts
This claim originally arose in November, 1992, when Freida Longoria sustained a mid-dorsal muscle strain while working as a cashier at Brookshire Grocery Company's ("Brookshire") store in Natchitoches. She was injured at her register while lifting three 2-liter coke bottles and turning to put them in a shopping cart. She felt sharp pain and "went to her knees." The pain was so severe, she thought she was having a heart attack. Within minutes someone relieved her, and after resting briefly in the store's break room, she went to the hospital where she was admitted. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a dorsal strain/sprain centered at T8-T9 facet joint (R).
Longoria previously sued Brookshire in 1994 for supplemental earnings benefits, temporary total disability benefits, additional medical expenses for mental injury, attorney's fees and penalties. These issues were tried in May, 1995, and judgment was rendered in favor of Brookshire, dismissing her claims. The WCJ found that Ms. Longoria failed to prove that a mental injury resulted from the physical injury sustained in the November 7, 1992 accident. The court also determined that Brookshire had paid all of Ms. Longoria's medical expenses in connection with her workplace injury since the date of the accident, except for those medical expenses related to the mental injury she alleged. Although Longoria had initially been paid wage benefits through October 1994, Longoria was denied additional wage benefits. By virtue of her graduation from college with a degree in accounting, Longoria was able to maintain sufficient employment despite her back pain.
From the onset of the injury, Longoria sought treatment for her significant pain from orthopedic and other physicians and from mental health care providers. Beginning in 1995, she has been treated with success by a pain management specialist, Dr. John Ledbetter. The treatment consists of administering trigger point injections for symptomatic pain relief, and prescribing narcotic analgesics and muscle relaxers. Longoria testified that she usually obtains trigger point injections about every six weeks, although when the therapeutic effects last longer, she sometimes waits for up to three months between injections.
Dr. Ledbetter initially referred Longoria to Dr. Charles Aprill, a New Orleans radiologist and diagnostician, in 1997. His assessment consisted of dorsal discography at T8-T9, right-sided facet injection and a post injection CT scan, and his report concluded that Longoria had a lower third dorsal sprain centered
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