Joyce Jones v. New York Underwriters

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with TENN. CODE ANN. _ 5-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law. Plaintiff alleged injury to her back and neck at work. The trial judge awarded her 15 percent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. Plaintiff was working for at Arcata Graphics on March 17, 1992 when her right index finger was caught in a re-press roller. She tried to jerk her finger out of the roller, fearing her whole hand and arm would be caught, and her supervisor pushed her back from the machine while trying to turn the machine off. She was treated in the emergency room and subsequently referred to Dr. James Phillips, orthopedic surgeon. She received anti-inflammatory medication and underwent physical therapy. Two weeks later she began experiencing increasing pain, "moving up her arm and in her shoulder and neck area," and still later she began having severe headaches on the right side of her head. Dr. Gregory Corradino, a neurologist, began treating plaintiff in late 1993 and performed surgery on her cervical spine. When deposed, Dr. Phillips opined that if plaintiff's finger crush injury were accompanied by a jerking maneuver, it could have caused her disc rupture, and that this possible causal connection would be strengthened if surgery resolved her complaints. Dr. Gregory Corradino found that plaintiff had a herniated cervical disc at C4/5 and performed surgical removal of the disc. W hen asked whether the disc herniation had been caused by plaintiff's jerking her finger out of the press at work, he opined that such motion could cause a disc herniation. Dr. John Marshall, physiatrist, evaluated plaintiff for defendant and treated her for nine months. He opined that although the jerking motion could herniate a disc, he did not think that it had done so in this case. Plaintiff testified that she jerked her head and neck hard to remove her finger from the press. She further said that prior to the injury at Arcata Graphics, she had