Denise Stavropoulos v. Saturn Corporation

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. Denise Stavropoulos (employee), suffered bilateral hand numbness and later severe neck pain with no identifiable precipitating event. Massive cervical disc herniation was diagnosed and corrective surgery was performed. The trial court found the condition to be work-related and awarded 9 percent permanent partial vocational disability, in lump sum, and temporary total disability benefits, set off by group disability benefits which had been paid as of the date of trial. Employee is 42 years old and has a high school education. After 14 years' work as a sewing machine operator and press operator for General Motors in Michigan, she began working for Saturn Corporation (employer) in 1992 as an Inventory Management team member. Her duties included operating a forklift truck with an overhead computer screen and reaching up to the computer to enter data about the work that was being performed. She had been treated by a therapeutic masseuse on two occasions in November 1995, for tension, headaches, and mild thoracic stiffness. On November 15, 1995, the masseuse found tight levator, rhomboid and supraspinous muscles, i.e., the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades and cervical spine. She performed an hour-long "myofacial release technique" to the shoulder blades and cervical spine, with good results.1 The employee first noticed numbness in her hands during the second week of July, 1996, and does not recall any precipitating event. She testified that the 1 Performed to treat inflammation where the muscle is attached to the bone. The Sloane-Dorland Annotated Medical-Legal Dictionary, West Publishing, 1987. 2