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Korsak v. Hawaii Permanente Medical Group11/10/1999
ed that " here is no doubt that the most of the sciatica and back pain incurred in March 1993 during a physical therapy session was the final precipitating event that caused his medical retirement."
By letter dated January 9, 1996, Korsak requested reconsideration by the Director or, in the alternative, an appeal to the Board of the Director's December 22, 1995 decision and order. The Director denied reconsideration but deemed the letter an appeal to the Board.
On November 27, 1996, Dr. James Langworthy performed, at Kaiser's request, a records review of Korsak's medical history.
The Board issued its decision and order on July 15, 1998, affirming the Director's denial of compensation for Korsak's low back condition. The Board made the following relevant findings of facts and conclusions of law:
Findings of Fact
8. There is a factual dispute on the issue of whether Claimant exacerbated his low back during PT [physical therapy] for his right knee. Even if Claimant developed right sciatica while performing PT for his right knee, however, we do not accept Claimant's contention that the PT incident caused his current low back condition.
9. . . . .
We accept Drs. Silver's and Langworthy's opinions over that of Dr. Sam, regarding the causation of Claimant's current low back condition.
According to Dr. Silver, the cause of Claimant's continued low back pain is the natural progression of his spinal condition which pre-existed the November 16, 1992 work injury.
According to Dr. Langworthy, the cause of Claimant's current back condition is a combination of his earlier herniated disc in the 1970s with two surgeries at that time, combined with a compression fracture and herniated disc in the lower thoracic region from the 1989 [motor vehicle accident] MVA.
While Drs. Silver's and Langworthy's reports do not address the issue of whether Claimant exacerbated his low back during PT for his right knee, we note that their reports did review Dr. Sam's report dated July 30, 1994, which referenced the alleged PT incident.
10. We find that Claimant's current low back condition is the result of the natural progression of his pre-existing low back condition.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. We conclude that Claimant's low back condition is not a compensable consequence of the November 16, 1992 work injury, because Claimant's current low back condition is not causally related to his November 16, 1992 work injury. While Claimant contends that he permanently aggravated his low back condition during PT for his compensable knee injury, we have found that Claimant's current low back condition is due to his pre-existing low back problems.
On August 7, 1998, Korsak filed a timely notice of appeal from the Board's July 15, 1998 decision and order.
DISCUSSION
Korsak argues three points of error, as follows:
The Board erred in concluding that his low back condition is not a compensable consequence of the November 16, 1992 work injury.
The Board erred in accepting Dr. Silver's and Dr. Langworthy's opinions over that of Dr. Sam, regarding the causation of his current low back condition.
(3) The Board erred in not accepting his contention that the physical therapy incident caused his current low back condition.
We address Korsak's first point of error, as it subsumes the two others.
The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether the Board erred in its ultimate decision that Korsak's low back condition was not a compensable consequence of the November 16, 1992 work inju
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