Iowa Workers' Compensation

In Bolton v. Second Injury Fund of Iowa , No. 13-1620 (Iowa App. July 30, 2014), the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the commissioner finding that claimant had not demonstrated a first injury for Second Injury Fund purposes, and thus was not entitled to benefits against the Fund.  Claimant argued that he had a first injury to his left knee in 1982, and noted that an IME had "extrapolated" a 1% impairment rating to the left leg.  At hearing, claimant admitted that he did not suffer any difficulties with his knee until after he began working for the employer some 18 years after the incident.  The court concluded that "there is, quite simply, nothing in the record to tie Bolton's complaints of knee pain to the 1982 injury until after he filed for workers' compensation benefits in this matter." The court noted that the 1% rating was assigned based on subjective complaints of pain, and noted that there were never any restrictions given as a result of ...

In Architectural Walls Systems v. Towers , No. 13-1653 (Iowa App. July 16, 2014), the Court of Appeals addressed an issue that arises with some frequency before the commissioner - whether deep vein thrombosis can be an industrial injury for workers' compensation purposes.  In doing so, the court affirmed a finding that claimant had a 60% industrial disability. Claimant fractured his right ankle while working for the employer.  He had surgery, but six weeks after the surgery, he began having swelling in his right leg.  He was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and surgery was performed to remove a blood clot and insert a filter to prevent clots from moving to claimant's heart or lungs.  Thereafter, claimant was directed to take anticoagulants twice daily. Later testing revealed no active DVT in claimant's right leg.  Defendants' doctors (Troll and Mooney) provided claimant with a rating to the leg.  Dr. Kuhnlein found that the DVT was related to the ...