Firefighter with heart attack granted benefits

• An appeals court in Florida upheld a decision awarding workers’ comp benefits to a Seminole County firefighter who had a heart attack and needed a heart transplant after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
• The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal involved a state law that applies to firefighters, law enforcement officers, and correctional officers.
• The law deems certain conditions such as heart disease are presumed to have been suffered in the line of duty unless the contrary be shown by competent evidence.”
• The ruling went into extensive detail, including showing heart diagrams, and pointed to what it said was the understood meaning of heart disease when the presumption law was passed in 1965.
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Court reverses Wegmans workers’ comp ruling

• The New York State Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling in a workers’ compensation case involving a Wegmans employee, Thomas Lazalee, who filed a claim for benefits in 2018 while out of work with a right thumb injury and carpal tunnel syndrome, for which he had surgery.
• Wegmans accepted liability at a previous hearing but asked to cross-examine the doctor about the degree of impairment during Lazalee’s most recent period out of work.
• Under the rules of the Workers’ Comp Board, if an employer wants to cross-examine a doctor whose report is on file, the referee “shall grant an adjournment for such purpose,” according to the Court of Appeals decision.
• The board found that Wegmans sought to retroactively argue that the claimant was not disabled without any contrary credible medical evidence.
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Workers injured after being pinned between vehicles

• Two workers were sent to the emergency room after they were pinned between a van and a loading dock in Danvers, Massachusettes.
• Emergency crews responding to a business on Garden Street before 8 a.m. found two carpet installation workers suffering from serious leg injuries.
• Amerault said the installation crew members were working when a Hernandez Carpet Services van backed into them, leaving them pinned up against the dock.
• One of the workers was flown to Boston Medical Center with injuries to both of their legs. The other worker was taken via ambulance to Beverly Hospital with an injury to one of their legs.
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Minnesota county wins workers’ comp award

• Morrison County is the best out of the state’s 87 counties in one category for 2023, which was the workers’ compensation division, according to the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trus.
• This division aims to provide workers injured on the job with benefits concerning wage loss, medical expenses, and vocational rehabilitation.
• The county’s workers’ compensation Chief Financial Officer Curt Bryniarski was presented with the award during the Morrison County Board of Commissioners meeting.
• Bryniarski said it is a group effort to run the workers’ comp division, and said the safety committee in particular helps to make his life easier by working to keep employees safe.
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