Connecticut: "New" Heart Received Via Cardiac Transplant is Not a Prosthetic Device

The Supreme Court of Connecticut held that when, under compensable circumstances, an organ of the body is removed, there is no automatic "loss" of the organ if another is transplanted into the body as a replacement. Accordingly, under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-308(b), where a police officer sustained a compensable heart disease, giant cell myocarditis, and underwent a successful heart transplant operation, it was appropriate for the Board to consider the proper functioning of his "new" heart and award only a 23 percent PPD award, rather than an award of 100 percent, as the officer contended was in order. The appellate court held the transplanted heart was not a prosthetic device. Moreover, the transplant operation was no mere removal of the diseased heart; it also provided for a natural replacement.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Vitti v. City of Milford, 2020 Conn. LEXIS 192 (Aug. 24, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 86.04.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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