Virginia: Worker's Crohn's Disease Was Compensable Consequence of Original Injury

Quoting Larson's Workers' Compensation Law, and stressing that all medical consequences and sequelae that flow from the primary injury are compensable as long as there is a direct causal link between the primary injury and the additional injury for which the claimant seeks compensation, a Virginia appellate court -- in a decision not designated for publication -- affirmed an award of benefits in connection with a claimant's Crohn's colitis (an inflammatory bowel disease) resulting from medications the claimant took for a prior work-related injury. Claimant suffered from diabetic neuropathy and had little feeling in his feet. He stepped on a metal fragment while working but did not immediately realize the fragment had pierced his work shoe and punctured his foot. His foot became infected and he was prescribed antibiotics which, in turn, led to the Crohn's disease.

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 Farrish of Fairfax v. Faszcza, 2020 Va. App. LEXIS 173 (June 16, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 10.01.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

Sign up for the free LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation enewsletter at www.lexisnexis.com/wcnews.