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Perez v. American Airlines/AMR Corp.10/18/2005
the injury here, plaintiff was entitled to arebuttable presumption that the medical treatment for her back injury was directly related to the original compensable injury.
Defendant offers no expert testimony or affirmative medical evidence tending to show that the treatment for plaintiff's herniated disc is not directly related to the compensable injury of 1998. Although defendant emphasizes that Dr. Patterson stated that it was impossible to say whether plaintiff's back problems of 2002 were related to the injury of 1998, Dr. Patterson also testified that the herniation was within an inch or two of the location where he treated plaintiff in 2000 and that "there's no doubt that you can start with a small disc herniation or a bulge or something and it can progress over a period of time[.]" Dr. Patterson last evaluated plaintiff on 5 June 2000, and his testimony is equivocal on whether the symptoms of 2002 could be directly related to the symptoms that continued from 1998 through 2000. The weight of thetestimony is properly determined by the Commission, not by this Court. See Adams, 349 N.C. at 680, 509 S.E.2d at 413. Defendant has failed to rebut the presumption that the treatment in 2002 was directly related to the injury of 1998. As such, we hold that the Commission did not err in concluding that plaintiff was entitled to a presumption that additional medical treatment for her back injury was directly related to the 1998 compensable injury.
For the reasons discussed above, we affirm the opinion and award of the Commission.
Affirmed.
Judges CALABRIA and GEER concur.
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