August 11 2008

DEATH FROM WORK-RELATED STRESS LEADS TO FULL WORKERS’ COMPENSATION RECOVERY

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that stress can be an occupational disease which will support a workers’ compensation claim.

The case resulted from the death of a secretary who worked at a high-stress job at Duke University Medical Center.

The evidence showed that the secretary worked under an “exceptionally demanding doctor” who criticized her in front of others and was generally abusive towards her.

The secretary’s doctor testified that her pre-existing diabetic condition had been exacerbated (made worse) by stress from her work under the abusive doctor at the Duke University Medical Center’s anesthesiology department. The doctor further testified that it was “more likely than not” that the secretary’s diabetes caused her death.

The North Carolina Industrial Commission awarded the heirs of the deceased secretary full workers’ compensation benefits because of its holding that the death was caused by her work-related occupational disease.

In so holding, Judge McCullough, writing for the court wrote that the doctor’s opinion: “Was based not only on the temporal sequence of events, but also on statistical information and the doctor’s knowledge of the history of the decedent’s condition”.

The employer had argued to the court that the doctor who treated the secretary for her diabetic condition had offered only “speculative” evidence about the actual cause of her death.

The aggravation of her diabetic condition caused her to experience a loss of most of the vision in her right eye by April of 1997. In January of 1998 the secretary lost most of the vision in her left eye. However, the secretary continued to work for the defendant until April 1, 1999 when she was placed on disability retirement. The secretary died on January 10, 2004. Thereafter, her sole heir brought this action for full workers’ compensation death benefits.

This is one of the few cases in which workers’ compensation benefits have been awarded to a non-law-enforcement-officer based upon a stress-related disease.