A kitchen assistant sustained a right-eye injury when cleaning liquid splashed into the eye. Treatment records showed normal findings by December 2024. Seven months after the incident, the claimant sought to add the neck, back, right shoulder, and post-traumatic headaches as direct injuries from the same event.
LOIS Senior Associate Scott A. Grossman promptly raised the appropriate defenses, obtained neurologic and orthopedic record reviews, and requested testimony from the physician whose report supplied prima facie medical evidence. The defense reports found no causal relationship. During testimony, the claimant’s physician could not provide a definitive causal opinion, while the neurologic reviewer explained why the alleged conditions were unrelated to the eye exposure.
The New York Workers’ Compensation Law Judge disallowed every additional site, found no permanent impairment of the healed eye, and closed the claim. The Judge also declined to award a testimony fee to the claimant’s physician because the testimony lacked meaningful probative value. The outcome eliminated unsupported treatment and permanency exposure and brought a fully resolved claim to closure.
