Q: Can we appeal denied workers comp after being misdiagnosed for heart attack symptoms by employer's physicians?
My husband drives tractor trailers and was sent to the clinic by his employer for pain radiating from his back/chest and shoulder down his arm. They said it was a shoulder strain (even though he doesn't do any lifting) and put him on light duty. 5 days later, he went to the ER after work and learned those were heart attack symptoms and he needed emergency surgery. He's been denied workers comp by the job's insurance company. Do we have a case to appeal or charge the clinic with misdiagnosis?
A:
To be compensable under the Illinois Worker's Compensation Act, an illness or injury must be caused or contributed to by a person's work. On your facts, your husband does no lifting or other strenuous work beyond driving. On your facts, your husband's heart attack cannot be work-related. If you change the facts, you could have a different outcome. For example, if your husband had an undiagnosed heart problem and he was forced to drive for 10 hours in a tractor where the air conditioning was broken and it's 90° outside. If the additional stress from the 90° heat caused your husband to have a heart attack, then it would be compensable.
On your facts, your husband was performing the same job he had performed for a long time. The only change was that he began exhibiting symptoms of a heart attack. As I tried to explain above, having a heart attack at work does not make the heart attack work-related. I understand that the employer's clinic misdiagnosed your husband's symptoms as a shoulder sprain. Fortunately, that fact is irrelevant. Change the facts a bit. If the words that you wrote were actually written down in the chart note is what your husband reported and then a few days later, while driving on a busy highway, your husband sustained a heart attack that resulted in injury or death of your husband and/or other people, your husband would have a valid Worker's Compensation claim and anyone else injured or killed in the accident would bring a claim against your husband's employer (through its liability carrier). Even in that scenario, it is unlikely that there would be a malpractice claim because no one would have an incentive to bring one.
The answer to your original question is: "of course you can." Anytime you suspect that a Worker's Compensation claim has been unfairly denied, you only need to contact an experienced Worker's Compensation attorney in your area. Good luck.
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