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Merck & Company6/4/2002
Merck & Company, Inc. (Employer) appeals from an order of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) reversing that portion of the Workers' Compensation Judge's (WCJ) decision finding that Employer established that Andrea Wagman-Bartholomeo (Claimant) had fully recovered from, among other things, her work-related ankle injury.
On October 13, 1994, Claimant, who was employed as a Health Education Liaison for Employer, sustained a work-related injury in the nature of a strain/sprain of her neck and right ankle and began receiving compensation benefits pursuant to a notice of compensation payable dated December 12, 1994.
Claimant did not return to work after the incident and relocated to another state in April 1998. Employer filed a petition to terminate Claimant's compensation benefits alleging that she had fully recovered from her work-related injuries as of June 29, 1998.
In support of its petition, Employer presented the testimony of H. Donald Lambe, M.D. (Dr. Lambe), a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who performed an independent medical examination on Claimant on June 29, 1998. Dr. Lambe stated that he had reviewed Claimant's medical records which indicated that at the time of the incident, she had complained of neck pain, right-sided chest pain and right ankle pain from her fall. Dr. Lambe testified that he examined Claimant and had her perform a variety of movements to assess her range of motion. He further stated that he asked Claimant to walk for him and noticed that she was able to walk with a normal gait and could walk on her heels which indicated a relatively normal strength in her calf muscles.
Dr. Lambe stated that his examination revealed no objective signs of injury, diagnostic reports were insufficient to account for Claimant's right-sided radicular symptoms and apparent weakness, and he opined that Claimant's cervical disc herniations were caused by her degenerative disc disease rather than her work injury. Dr. Lambe opined that Claimant had subjective complaints of neck pain and right upper extremity pain and numbness, headache and disability, all of which she related to her 1994 injury, and further opined that at the time he examined her, she had recovered from those 1994 injuries and could return to her pre-injury job without restriction.
In opposition, Claimant testified that in October 1994, while on her way to a work-related meeting, she fell down a flight of stairs, landed on her back and began experiencing pain in her neck, arms, lower back and ankle region.
Claimant stated that at the time of the hearing, she was still experiencing muscle spasms in her neck and shoulder, weakness in her neck and back, sharp pain in her cervical spine and a loss of feeling in her fingers and hands. She further stated that she sometimes experienced spasms in her lower back which would move into her upper leg region.
Claimant also presented the testimony of Frederick W. Smith, M.D. (Dr. Smith), a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who began treating Claimant on September 29, 1998. Dr. Smith testified that after his examinations of Claimant, he had diagnosed her with myofascial muscle pain syndrome, chronic cervical disc syndrome with radiculopathy and a mild lumbar sprain. He opined that all of these conditions were related to her work-related injury, that Claimant had not fully recovered from the work injury, and she could only do minimal work as a result of the incident.
Finding the testimony of Dr. Lambe to be credible, and based on the testimony that Employer had met its burden of proving that all disability related to Claimant's work injury had ceased as of June 29, 1998, the WCJ g
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