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Feild v. General Motors Corp.9/18/2002
The employer, General Motors ("GM"), appeals a judgment finding that the claimant, Kathleen Feild, sustained a work-related mental injury and awarding her temporary, total workers' compensation benefits. Ms. Feild answers the appeal, contesting the portion of the judgment that reduced her compensation benefits by sickness and disability benefits funded by GM. Ms. Feild also contests the denial of her claim for penalties and attorney fees. For the reasons expressed, we affirm.
Factual background
Ms. Feild was a 13-year employee of the GM assembly plant in Shreveport. In August 1998, she was on the chassis line and earning an average weekly wage of $820. On August 17, 1998, she injured her left hand when a "nut cross-threaded and * * * the gun twisted around," throwing her wrist under the frame and turning her body against the frame. The parties stipulated that the hand injury was work-related. The principal issue in the case was whether this injury caused a recurrence of acute depression and panic disorder that made her unable to work.
Ms. Feild reported the accident to plant medical, which sent her to Willis-Knighton South. Doctors there diagnosed an acute finger sprain, placed her in a splint and ultimately referred her to an orthopedist, Dr. J. Lee Etheredge. In office visits in late August and early September 1998, Ms. Feild told Dr. Etheredge that she had been working light duty while wearing the splint but was still having finger and wrist pain. She testified that Dr. Etheredge ordered her not to use her left arm and wrist; the doctor testified that finding no objective symptoms, he restricted her from repetitive gripping, pushing, pulling, or lifting over three pounds with her left hand. Ms. Feild, however, testified that GM would not honor any of the medical restrictions, placing her in a different department where she had to lift boxes of bolts that weighed 20-30 lbs. Ms. Feild testified that when she presented her medical restrictions on September 29, 1998, GM's plant medic, a Dr. Kakani, sent her away saying, "GM didn't need a one-armed person."
Ms. Feild, who has a medical history of recurring major depression, testified that she suffered an immediate panic attack, could not breathe, and began to vomit as she left the plant. Dr. Kakani's remark "destroyed" her, as her work at GM "was everything." The initial panic attack deepened into major depression. While she was at home and unable to work, financial problems mounted and family conflicts grew, especially with her adult children and elderly mother. In addition, she was gripped by the sense that GM was mistreating her, denying that her injuries were work related and withholding money from her.
Ms. Feild was admitted to Charter Brentwood Behavioral Health Center for a week in October 1998 for inpatient mental treatment. Her attending physician, Dr. Dean Robinson, confirmed that she was suffering from recurrent major depression and was essentially unable to function. He advised her not to return to work at GM until she is totally recovered from depression.
Her treating psychiatrist, Dr. George Armistead, agreed that Ms. Feild remains unable to work, and found that her mental condition had actually deteriorated since her stay at Brentwood. Like Dr. Robinson, he noted her extensive history of depression prior to the August 1998 injury and conceded that other significant stressors contributed to her condition, especially conflicts with her adult children and having to take care of her elderly mother. However, her life situation had never been debilitating until the August 1998 hand injury, with the ensuing rejection by GM, loss of work and income, and loss of her "caregiver" role w
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