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BUFORD v. STANDARD GRAVEL COMPANY12/1/1999
Roger Buford appeals a decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission denying his claim for additional benefits for permanent total disability. He argues that the decision of the Commission is not supported by substantial evidence. We agree and reverse and remand for an award of permanent total disability benefits.
Buford, 40 years old and a high-school graduate, has an employment history of heavy labor. He was trained as a telephone-cable splicer while in the Air Force. After an honorable discharge, Buford was employed as a truck driver, a "derrick hand" in the oil fields, an electrician, a cable-TV installer, and, most recently, a journeyman welder. In September 1981, Buford was working high on an oil derrick when a chain binder broke, struck Buford in the throat, and his larynx was crushed. As a result, he speaks with rough-sounding hoarseness and cannot speak loudly, but he was never given a permanent-impairment rating for that injury.
In October 1988, Buford was working for appellee Standard Gravel Company as a welder when he sustained a herniated disk and was found to have six lumbar vertebrae, instead of the normal five. On November 10, 1988, Dr. Zachary Mason, a Little Rock neurosurgeon, performed a laminectomy and diskectomy at the L4-5 level on the left. On January 12, 1989, Buford returned to Dr. Mason and requested that he be released to return to work. In a letter to Dr. Gary Bevill, Buford's family physician in El Dorado, Dr. Mason said Buford had a ten-percent permanent-impairment rating. Dr. Mason also said he had cautioned Buford against stressing his back and specifically to avoid lifting objects weighing greater than forty pounds and to avoid repeated bending and stooping. Buford returned to work for appellee.
In 1991, Buford again injured his back at work and returned to Dr. Mason. An MRI showed a very large herniated disk, and a myelogram revealed nerve root compression at the L5-6 level on the left. On August 14, 1991, Dr. Mason performed another lumbar laminectomy to remove the ruptured disk. Following the second injury Dr. Mason again restricted Buford from repetitive bending, stooping, and lifting objects weighing more than forty to fifty pounds, and assigned him a permanent-impairment rating of fifteen percent to the body as a whole. Buford was released to return to work on November 4, 1991.
In February 1993, Buford again returned to Dr. Mason complaining of low back and bilateral leg pain. Dr. Mason stated in a letter to Dr. Bevill dated February 11, 1993, that working as a welder Buford had been unable to strictly follow the restrictions placed upon him and, while lifting heavy pipe, began to have severe back pain to the extent that he was unable to work. Dr. Mason referred Buford to Dr. Austin Grimes, a Little Rock orthopedist. On May 27, 1993, Dr. Grimes performed another lumbar diskectomy at the L4-5 level and a fusion. Buford has not been able to work since. After extensive physical therapy and rehabilitation efforts, Buford endured a series of epidural steroid injections on July 13, 1995, but continued to have severe pain in his lower back and legs.
On February 27, 1997, Healthworks Outpatient Physical Therapy at JRMC, reported to Dr. Grimes that it had performed a functional capacity evaluation on Buford. The summary stated that Buford had a 75% validity criteria indicating consistent effort and there was no observed symptom exaggeration or inappropriate illness behavior. It recommended:
Mr. Buford is not capable of working for an eight hour day. His functional abilities deteriorated during this evaluation. Due to the length of time since the injury, and the extent of the injury, it would appear that Mr. Bu
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