Title: Drake v. State Department of Social Welfare

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

210 Kan. 197 (1972)
499 P.2d 532
AVIS F. DRAKE, Widow of Darrell A. Drake, Deceased, Appellee,
v.
STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE  LARNED STATE HOSPITAL, Appellant.
No. 46,585

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed July 19, 1972.
Hal E. DesJardins, of Topeka, argued the cause, and Woody D. Smith, of Topeka, was with him on the brief for the appellant.
Dan E. Turner, of Turner and Balloun, Chartered, of Great Bend, argued the cause, and J. Eugene Balloun, Lee Turner and Mary A. Senner, of the same firm, and the firm of Smith and Burnett, of Larned, were with him on the brief for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SCHROEDER, J.:
This is an appeal in a workmen's compensation case by the State Department of Social Welfare, the self-insured respondent, from an award to the widow and sole dependent of the deceased workman.
The only points presented on appeal are whether the trial court erred in finding (a) that the deceased workman sustained personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment; and (b) that the injury the deceased workman sustained was instrumental in part and was a contributing cause of his death.
The claimant, Avis F. Drake, contends the deceased workman, Darrell A. Drake, suffered an injury to his back on October 10, 1967, by accident and in the course of his employment as an *198 assistant engineer at the Larned State Hospital, and that this injury was a contributing cause of his death on January 5, 1968. The respondent contends there has been no showing of a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, and further that there is no substantial competent evidence to show that such injury, if there was one, caused or contributed to the workman's death.
Darrell A. Drake was employed as an assistant chief engineer for the Larned State Hospital. On October 10, 1967, Drake in the company of three other Larned State Hospital employees went to a warehouse on the hospital grounds for the purpose of inspecting some compressors. In front of the warehouse in question is a landing or dock about two feet high or slightly more. Viewing the evidence in the record most favorably to the claimant, Drake slipped while entering upon the landing and injured his back.
The claimant contends the decedent's back became very painful which made it extremely difficult for him to cough and to clear his lungs. The condition was so aggravated that he was forced to enter the hospital for severe respiratory distress and back pain and was making a recovery when a complication set in and he died from the combined results.
The examiner found, in addition to the stipulations, that the workman did, in fact, sustain some injury to his back while engaged in his work, but that the back injury apparently sustained had nothing to do with the workman's death. The examiner denied compensation.
On appeal to the district court of Pawnee County, Kansas, the district court found that Drake sustained personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, and that the injury sustained was instrumental in part and was a contributing cause of his death. Accordingly, the claimant was awarded compensation.
Under K.S.A. 1971 Supp. 44-556, the Supreme Court on appeal in a workmen's compensation case is limited to determining questions of law. (Morgan v. Auto Transports, Inc., 192 Kan. 139, 141, 386 P.2d 230.) On the issues here presented our only function in reviewing the case is to determine whether the trial court's findings are supported by substantial competent evidence.
In reviewing the record to determine whether it contains substantial evidence to support the findings of the trial court, this court is required to review all of the evidence in the light most *199 favorable to the prevailing party below. (Jones v. City of Dodge City, 194 Kan. 777, 778, 402 P.2d 108.)
The term "substantial evidence," when applied to workmen's compensation cases, means evidence possessing something of substance and relevant consequence, and carrying with it fitness to induce conviction that the award is proper, or furnishing substantial basis of fact from which the issue tendered can be reasonably resolved. (Jones v. City of Dodge City, supra; Weimer v. Sauder Tank Co., 184 Kan. 422, 337 P.2d 672; and Barr v. Builders, Inc., 179 Kan. 617, 296 P.2d 1106.)
Reviewing the evidence, properly admissible in a workmen's compensation case, as we must, the record discloses substantial competent evidence to sustain the trial court's finding that the deceased workman sustained personal injury by accident on October 10, 1967, arising out of and in the scope of his employment.
Mrs. Drake, the claimant and widow of the deceased, testified that her husband had spoken to her about the incident upon arriving home from work that evening; that he complained of backaches which he attributed to a slip on the dock at his place of employment. Mrs. Drake kept a diary in the form of a calendar and made detailed entries concerning her husband's complaints and condition. According to Mrs. Drake her husband complained of back pain every day between October 11 and October 23, 1967. He had returned to work on October 11, 1967, but came home complaining of back pain. He never returned to work, remaining at home until he entered the Larned Hospital on October 23, 1967. He was transferred to the Wesley Medical Center in Wichita on December 5, 1968, and during this period he constantly complained of back pain.
The decedent consulted Dr. Brenner for his back condition, and Mrs. Drake testified Dr. Brenner told her the decedent's problem was not pleurisy but back trouble. She told of rubbing liniment on his back because of the complaints he made, and how he slept in a chair because his back pained too much for him to lie down. While the three men accompanying Drake to the warehouse on October 10, 1967, did not observe Drake slip, they were not particularly observing him on the occasion, and one admitted on cross-examination that the accident could well have happened as Mr. Drake said it did.
Both the hospital records, after the decedent's admission to the *200 hospital, and the doctor's notes attribute the decedent's injury to a fall at work and indicate the persistent complaints of back pain by the decedent. Medicine was prescribed for such pain and administered. All of the foregoing evidence is consistent with the widow's testimony.
Whether the injury sustained by the decedent on October 10, 1967, was instrumental in part and a contributing cause of the decedent's death is a more difficult question.
The only medical witness to testify was John K. Fulton, M.D. The testimony of Dr. Fulton is extensively set forth in the record, followed by a summary of hospital records, doctors' notes and nurses' notes, all made during the decedent's stay in Wesley Memorial Hospital up to the date of his death on January 5, 1968. The discharge summary prepared subsequent to the decedent's death indicates the following concerning his prior medical history and eventual death:
..............
According to Dr. Fulton the cause of death was extensive pneumonia involving both lungs and complicating the emphysema. Dr. Fulton testified he first attended the decedent on August 15, 1966, and the decedent gave a history of a tendency to wheezing dyspnea since age twelve which had become more constant in recent years.
*201 When Dr. Fulton was asked to relate in full the mechanism by which he felt the back injury was associated with the workman's death he testified:
Dr. Fulton testified:
"Q. Did he tell you it hurt him to cough?
"A. Yes, he did."
In Dr. Fulton's opinion, based upon reasonable medical certainty, it was probable that the decedent's back injury was one of the contributing causes of his ultimate death.
When the decedent was admitted to the hospital on August 16, 1966, X-rays of the chest were made which showed the dorsal spine to good advantage on the lateral film. At that time mention was made of a moderate degree of pulmonary emphysema but there was no mention of any abnormality of the dorsal spine.
A year later he was hospitalized again in August, 1967, at which time another chest film was taken. The statement made by Dr. Porter who read the film was, "No active chest disease is seen. Skeletal structures showed no gross abnormalities."
On December 6, 1967, during the decedent's last illness a chest X-ray was taken shortly after his admission. It showed, what was described by the radiologist as, essentially negative chest, X-rays of the dorsal and lumbar spine taken this same day showed no evidence of destructive change of traumatic, inflammatory, neoplastic origin in the bony component of the lower dorsal and upper lumbar spine. Degenerative changes were seen in the dorsal and lumbar vertebra.
*202 Dr. Fulton testified:
The doctor testified these abnormalities were present on August 16, 1967, as shown by the X-ray, but he added, "the patient had not complained much of pain until his last admission." He then testified:
"Q. All right.
..............
"A. Not alone, no.
"Q. What else could have caused it?
"Q. The bones were fractured, is that correct?
"A. '67.
"A. Yes.
..............
"A. No, sir.
"Q. Assuming there was a back injury.
"A. Yes, sir.
"A. No, sir.
..............
..............
*204 The discharge summary of Dr. Fulton concluded: "The presumed cause of death is the left cerebral artery thrombosis superimposed on long standing chronic bronchitis with chronic pulmonary insufficiency and threatening CO[2] narcosis."
In our opinion the record discloses substantial competent evidence to sustain the trial court's finding that the injury the decedent sustained on October 10, 1967, was instrumental in part and was a contributing cause of the decedent's death on January 5, 1968. A preexisting condition was aggravated by the back injury, which complicated the decedent's progress and ability to recover. The record discloses a causal connection between the accidental injury the workman sustained and his death.
Although a workman is afflicted with a disease which eventually culminates in his death, neither he nor his dependents are thereby barred from the right to compensation, if the workman actually suffered an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, and if such accident intensified or aggravated his affliction or contributed to his death. (Lee v. Lone Star Cement Co., 142 Kan. 349, 46 P.2d 864; Shapland v. Ferguson Furniture Co., 139 Kan. 768, 33 P.2d 145; and Gilliland v. Cement Co., 104 Kan. 771, 180 Pac. 793.)
An analogy is found in Evans v. Western Terra Cotta Co., 145 Kan. 924, 67 P.2d 426. There compensation was granted to the widow of a deceased workman who had a preexisting hernia condition. The deceased workman sustained an accident on the job and his hernia became strangulated and required surgery. Following surgery he died of a post-operative thrombosis, not related to the preexisting condition, or the injury at work. There was, however, a causal connection between the accidental injury the workman sustained and his death.
The judgment of the lower court awarding compensation to the claimant is affirmed.