Layoff news causes heart attack — employee gets comp
March 16, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Benefits Law, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, State and local law
Should employees get workers’ compensation benefits when they develop health problems caused by job-related stress? Yes, according to one court.
Here’s what happened in this recent case:
A 60-year-old employee was told her job was being eliminated after 25 years of working for the employer. She started crying and got permission from her boss to take the rest of the day off.
At home, about an hour after getting the news, the woman suffered a permanently disabling heart attack. Her doctor said she’d been healthy and that the incident was caused by the stress of hearing she was losing her job.
She was awarded accidental disability benefits. The company appealed, arguing she wasn’t eligible because the injury didn’t occur as a result of her job duties.
But the court sided with the employee’s doctor.
It was undisputed that the heart attack was caused by the woman’s conversation with her boss. And since that conversation occurred “during the scope of her employment,” the heart attack was directly related to her job and the woman was eligible for disability benefits.
Cite: Retirement Board of Salem v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Well, this opens up a whole new can of worms. Sometimes I’m sleepless just thinking about the stress of my job. Maybe I can get disability because my health is going down the tubes.
Hey, I’m not unsympathetic towards this individual, but come on. It’s a stretch, and it sets a dangerous precedent. After reading this case, the individual “had a long history of medical conditions, including obesity, hypertension, borderline lipid abnormalities, asthma, migraine headaches, anxiety, depression, and hypothyroidism”
March 18th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I have a husband and a few freinds who have heart attacks. I have not known anyon at any age who had heart attack because of their emotional upset. Heart attacks are the result of smoking, eating high cholestrol diet, not taking medications. I am surprised the doctor thought it was emotion. Everyone who has a heart attack could blame it on emotion. I think heart attacks are caused by physial problems. Was the doctor a relation or a boyfreind?
March 18th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
C’mon Jeanne, not all heart attacks are a result of smoking, poor eating habits or not taking meds. Some heart attacks are due to valid health problems, hereditary issues and, yes, some are even caused by emotional stress. I don’t believe, however, that a healthy person can experience a debilitating heart attack without some kind of pre-existing condition. Lord knows we all experience stress on a daily basis (including the thousands of people who have been laid off lately) but find a way to make it to the end of the day without having a heart attack.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I agree with Brian to an extent on opening a new can of worms, and with Jeanne about it being caused by bad diet and other things. However Stress is emotional, but cause medical problems! So the medical history that Brian refers to may have been there, however must have been treated and of course the stress of being told you are losing your job can trigger any/or all of her issues to include the heart attack treated or not.
I feel for her and yet of course there are Doctors out there that will do what ever you want them to if they are told it is a requirement of your job and it affects your recovery. If they think it was work related and it was a Workers Comp. issue why didn’t they have a independent medical done by a Workers Comp. Doctor or a neutral Doctor and have them determine the out come?
As for the opening of a can of worms well let me tell you I work for a Department of Corrections State Agency and I have seen some really crazy things come from staff who are lazy and don’t do their jobs when they are here that Doctor’s provide excuses for. Believe me if this has not been thought of before it was just a matter of time before it was.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Nowadays, you can find a doctor to say anything.
Once more it’s a government agency that has this issue. Why only government?
March 18th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
We actually had an employee, under the age of 30 with no prior heart problems, suffer a heart attack due to stress…….it can happen
March 19th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Would those of you who think this is such a stretch and not “physical” feel any differently as to your conclusion if her blood pressure had soared and she had had a massive stroke? Or, do you maintain that emotions have no role in blood pressure or if it does too bad as to the after affects of blood pressure?
March 26th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Are you kidding me???? Can I get Worker’s Comp for panic attacks that I have been having due to the recession? Maybe I can sue the President for it since he suppose to be fixing it?
People please!!!!! I know stress causes some of these health conditions but who is to say that it wasn’t from her yelling at her husband over something stupid, or chasing after her dog after it got loose, I should just suing for anything and everything that happens to me!
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Mack – we are a nation of laws, not a nation of emotions. We have got to get back to the basics of the rule of law and not moral relativism which has taken over many of our judicial proceedings and institutions.
How do you suggest she be told of her job loss? And how can the company avoid any litigation involving any personnel decision?
Again, I emphasize, these things seem to only occur in government agencies.