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Wells v. Wal-Mart Stores11/9/2005
ld reach the conclusion of the Commission, its decision must be affirmed. Id.
Arkansas Code Annotated section 11-9-508(a) (Supp. 2005) provides that an employer shall provide for an injured employee such medical treatment as may be reasonably necessary in connection with the injury received by the employee. The employee has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that medical treatment is reasonable and necessary. Stone, supra. What constitutes reasonable and necessary medical treatment is a question of fact for the Commission. Wackenhut, supra. When the primary injury is shown to have arisen out of and in the course of the employment, the employer is responsible for any natural consequence that flows from that injury; the basic test is whether there is a causal connection between the two episodes. Id.
The Commission found that appellant's current problems were related to a degenerative condition. It specifically found that the medical records did not support finding that treatment incurred after July 2002 was reasonable and necessary in connection with appellant's May 2001 injury. The Commission noted that, after reaching maximum medical improvement, appellant went almost a full year between medical treatments.
A review of appellant's medical records indicates that, in his May 14, 2001 notes, Dr. Woloszyn wrote that appellant suffered from arthritis in her knees. In a letter dated October 17, 2003, Dr. Cooper wrote:
She injured her knee while working 2 " years ago. However, it appears that a majority of her symptoms have persisted relative to her degenerative condition of her knee and her obesity. Therefore, the propensity of her current symptoms are related to her degenerative process and not her work related injury.
And on February 11, 2004, Dr. Cooper wrote:
She related to me that she was asymptomatic prior to falling in Wal-Mart and has remained symptomatic since that time developing significant right knee pain and disability. She was evaluated thoroughly and found to have advanced osteoarthritis of the right knee. It is my opinion that she has longstanding degenerative arthritis of the knee which was indeed present two and a half years ago at the time of the index injury. The injury did aggravate her condition making this become symptomatic and she has continued to have symptoms since that time. She has not recovered as would be expected from the injury because of her degenerative condition. Currently we are working on weight reduction, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, steroid injection and exercises to see if we can improve her symptoms and return her to some level of functioning.
In addition, in a letter dated September 16, 2003, Dr. Mulhollan wrote:
It is true that I rated her physical impairment as 5 percent. The basis of my calculation is as follows.
The patient has a very severe degenerative arthritic condition in her patello-femoral joint, due to patellar malalignment. It is congenital or at least a developmental abnormality that has been present throughout her adult life. Narrowing to the degree observed occurs only over a prolonged period of time and a very high level of favoring, usually brought on by the process of trying to avoid discomfort.
The Commission has the duty of weighing medical evidence, and the resolution of conflicting evidence is a question of fact for the Commission. Stone, supra. Appellant's medical records indicate that she suffered from a degenerative condition and that the degenerative condition was the cause of her current problems. Appellant was unable to establish a causal connection between her current problems and
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