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Fisk v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board11/9/1993
COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION SIX
No. B072005
1993.CA.41287 ; 25 Cal. Rptr. 2d 174; 20 Cal. App. 4th 1078
Decided: November 9, 1993.
JERRY D. FISK, PETITIONER,
v.
WORKERS' COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD, STATE DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES ET AL., RESPONDENTS.
W.C.A.B. No. 88 VEN 064989
Finestone, Schumaker, Cocquyt & Graham and David G. Schumaker for Petitioner.
Don E. Clark and Krimen, Klein, Da Silva, Daneri & Bloom for Respondents.
Opinion by Stone S. J., P. J., with Gilbert and Yegan, JJ., Concurring.
Stone
The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (Board) upheld a determination by a workers' compensation Judge (WCJ) that applicant, Jerry Fisk, had sustained new and further industrial disability involving his heart and vascular system but was not entitled to further medical treatment. We have concluded that the refusal to award further medical treatment was erroneous and that the Board's order denying reconsideration must be annulled insofar as it upholds the denial of further medical treatment and that further medical treatment must be awarded.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Applicant, Jerry Fisk, born March 19, 1942, was employed from 1963 to 1988 as a supervising psychiatric technician at Camarillo State Hospital by the State of California's Department of Developmental Services, which was legally uninsured with claims adjusted by the State Compensation Insurance
Fund (SCIF). According to the November 8, 1988, report of the agreed medical examiner, Edward J. O'Neill, M.D., applicant had "a very strong family history of vascular disease, as well as a history of smoking, serious obesity, and hyperlipidemia."
Dr. O'Neill reported that applicant told him that "in the course of his job as a [psychiatric technician] at Camarillo State Hospital, he was exposed to the patient population and had to participate in restraining patients and as such was physically assaulted on multiple occasions." Dr. O'Neill stated that applicant noted that " n the last month of his employment alone, he was involved in three separate assaults." Applicant also advised Dr. O'Neill that the staff was always short and that in recent years there had been a serious security problem. Applicant left state service in 1988 after about 25 years and took disability retirement, because applicant's angina pectoris symptoms made it impossible for him to continue to work. He filed an application for workers' compensation benefits on February 9, 1988, alleging cumulative industrial emotional stress and strain to his heart and vascular system.
In his November 8, 1988 report, Dr. O'Neill observed: "The stresses of [applicant's] occupation have been noted and represent a long[-]term moderate level influence without any specific precipitating events that have been identified." Dr. O'Neill stated that applicant "should be precluded from working in areas of excessive stress and he is limited to light work." However, Dr. O'Neill found only "a small occupational component" of applicant's disability. He further stated: "Apportionment is in order and I feel that 80%% of his disability is non-occupationally related and 20%% related to his occupational exposures. That is, [were] it not for his occupational exposures, he would have 80%% of his present disability and would have required the same de
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