BCM secures Commission modification of Arbitrator's finding on causation; Circuit Court confirms favorable Commission decision

Mark Vizza secured an Order from the Circuit Court of Kankakee County, Judge Wenzelman, which confirmed the decision of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission. Emma Martin v. Addus Health .  That decision of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission modified the decision of Arbitrator Gomora in favor of the respondent.

Arbitrator Gomora had found that the petitioner's present condition of ill-being was causally related to an accident arising out of and in the course of her employment with the respondent, and that the petitioner was entitled to temporary total disability benefits and the cost of performing a discogram.

After oral arguments on a Petition for Review filed by the respondent, the Commission found that the diagnosis and causal connection opinion regarding the petitioner's current condition of ill-being provided by her treating doctor, Dr. Malek, was based upon a faulty history by the patient and is not credible and deserving of little weight. That, based with the opinion of respondent's Section 12 examining physician which found that the petitioner sustained only a temporary aggravation of her degenerative disc disease and that she should attend therapy for four to six weeks, was the basis for the Commission's decision finding that the petitioner was temporarily totally disabled from December 22, 2003, through April 23, 2004, and that the petitioner is not entitled to medical expenses incurred after April 23, 2004, and vacated the award of prospective medical treatment in the form of the prescribed discogram.

The Commission further found that the petitioner failed to prove causal connection of her current condition of ill being subsequent to April 23, 2004.