Brown v. Deal's Carpet Care11/7/2003
Defendant, Deal's Carpet Care, appeals from a judgment of the Office of Workers' Compensation in favor of William Brown, awarding him medical expenses incurred as a result of a detached retina. For the following reasons, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On October 10, 2000, William Brown, who was employed by Deal's Carpet Care as a carpet technician, was performing a "pet treatment" in an apartment unit. To accomplish this task, Brown was using a two-gallon pump sprayer containing Clorox, citric cleaner and water. As Brown was pumping the sprayer to pressurize the contents, the seal around the cap of the spray container failed, causing the contents of the sprayer to shoot upward through the cap, striking him in the face and eyes.
Immediately after the accident, Brown began experiencing burning in his eyes and, thus, flushed his face and eyes with water. Brown then radioed for assistance, and, shortly thereafter, Chip Deal, Brown's supervisor, arrived at the apartment complex and assisted him in completing the job. Brown then reported back to the office to continue cleaning himself up. At the office, he related what had occurred to Mr. Deal, and Mr. Deal then told him to take the afternoon off.
For a period of a few days to a week following the accident, Brown continued to have a burning sensation in his eyes. He also noted some fuzziness in his vision. Brown assumed that these symptoms were caused by residual chemicals on his contact lenses, and, thus, he repeatedly cleaned his contacts in an attempt to clear up these problems. By December, Brown began to notice that he could not see his nose out of his right eye and instead could only see a black area. Again, Brown believed this was a contact-related problem. However, he did not purchase a new pair of contacts or see an eye doctor at that time for financial reasons.
By January of 2001, the area to the left side of Brown's right eye where he was experiencing loss of peripheral vision had widened, and Brown was also starting to have problems with depth perception and reduced vision in low light. Thus, when Brown subsequently lost his right contact lens in early February 2001, he made an appointment with Dr. Lawrence Aderhold, an optometrist, to obtain new contacts and also to determine the cause of the problems he was experiencing with his vision.
When Dr. Aderhold examined Brown on February 6, 2001, he diagnosed Brown as suffering from a detached retina of the right eye. The following day, Brown was examined by Dr. John Couvillion, an ophthalmologist, who recommended surgery to repair the retinal detachment. According to Brown, he contacted both Mr. and Mrs. Deal of Deal's Carpet Care in an attempt to have the surgery approved; however, they both hung up on him and would not give him any information about the company's insurance carrier.
Thereafter, on February 12, 2001, Brown underwent a double surgical procedure that combined a sceleral buckle and vitrectomy to repair the retinal detachment, which was performed at Tulane Medical Center by Dr. Douglas Babel, an ophthalmologist. In July 2001, Brown developed a second retinal detachment because of scar tissue that had developed during recovery from surgery. Thus, on July 18, 2001, he underwent a second surgical procedure to correct the detachment.
Subsequent to the second surgery, Brown filed a disputed claim for compensation, seeking reimbursement of the medical expenses he had incurred as a result of the retinal detachment. Following a hearing, the workers' compensation judge found as a fact that Brown had a pre-existing degenerative condition of the eye that was asymptomatic before the accident, but
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Louisiana Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|