South Carolina: Nurse Anesthetist’s Fall Was Not idiopathic; Benefits Should Be Awarded

Following remand from the state’s Supreme Court, a South Carolina appellate court held that a fall by a certified registered nurse anesthetist in an operating room was not idiopathic and arose out of and in the course of her employment in spite of the fact that the exact cause of her fall was not known.  Citing Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the court indicated that substantial evidence supported the Appellate Panel’s determination that the employee’s injury was not a result of an idiopathic fall.  Evidence tended to show the nurse fell as she walked from the head of the patient’s bed to the side, that the operating room contained numerous electrical cords that provided power to the patient’s bed, to an I.V. pole with pump, and other possible impediments.  She testified her foot became “caught on something.”  Her shoe was found near the top of the bed.  All this supported the Appellate Panel’s finding that the fall was not due to personal risk or condition suffered by the nurse.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Shatto v. McLeod Regional Med. Ctr., 2014 S.C. App. LEXIS 132 (June 11, 2014) [2014 S.C. App. LEXIS 132 (June 11, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 7.04 [7.04]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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