United States Department of Labor 

Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

__________________________________________ 

D.B., Appellant 

and 

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, 

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION MEDICAL 

CENTER, Bronx, NY, Employer 

__________________________________________ 

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Docket No. 15-1099 

Issued: September 20, 2016 

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record

Appellant, pro se 

Office of Solicitor, for the Director 

ORDER REMANDING CASE 

Before: 

CHRISTOPHER J. GODFREY, Chief Judge 

PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge 

ALEC J. KOROMILAS, Alternate Judge 

On April 17, 2015 appellant filed a timely appeal from an April 1, 2015 merit decision of 

the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) denying her claim for a recurrence of 

disability. This appeal was docketed as No. 15-1099. The Board finds that this case is not in 

posture for decision.1

On September 24, 2004 appellant, then a 49-year-old nursing assistant, filed a claim 

noting that on July 11, 2001 after taking a patient’s blood, she stuck her right hand when 

disposing of the needle. On November 12, 2004 OWCP accepted appellant’s claim for “accident 

caused by hypodermic needle to right hand.” On August 1, 2014 appellant filed a claim alleging 

a recurrence of the July 11, 2001 injury, noting that from 2003 to present she has suffered from 

chronic Hepatitis C. By decision dated September 23, 2014, OWCP denied appellant’s claim as 

it found that the evidence did not establish that she had a recurrence or increased disability due to 

a change or worsening of the accepted work conditions because there was no factual proof that 

appellant was exposed to a patient positive for Hepatitis C, and that therefore the evidence was 

insufficient to establish that she contracted Hepatitis C due to the July 11, 2001 injury. By 

decision dated April 1, 2015, the hearing representative affirmed OWCP’s September 23, 2014 

decision. 

 1

 By decision dated September 13, 2016, the Board denied appellant’s request for oral argument. 
2

It is an accepted principle of workers’ compensation law that when the primary injury is 

shown to have arisen out of and in the course of employment, every natural consequence that 

flows from the injury is deemed to arise out of the employment, unless it is the result of an 

independent intervening cause which is attributable to the employee’s own intentional conduct.2

 

The basic rule is that a subsequent injury, whether an aggravation of the original injury or a new 

and distinct injury, is compensable if it is the direct and natural result of a compensable primary 

injury.3 

Although OWCP and appellant discuss her claim as a claim for a recurrence of injury, the 

Board finds that this did not involve a recurrence of disability due to a spontaneous change in 

appellant’s medical condition. Rather, appellant is actually alleging that at the time she stuck 

herself with the needle on July 11, 2001, she contracted Hepatitis C. The Board notes that 

OWCP has already accepted appellant’s claim for this incident caused by a hypodermic needle 

stick to appellant’s right hand. Appellant now alleges that she developed Hepatitis C as a direct 

consequence of this accepted needle stick. Her allegation of a consequential injury has never 

been considered by OWCP. 

Accordingly, appellant’s claim should be considered a claim for a consequential injury. 

Therefore, the Board will remand this case, with instructions to OWCP that it consider 

appellant’s claim as a claim for a consequential injury. 

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the decision of the Office of Workers’ 

Compensation Programs dated April 1, 2015 is set aside and the case is remanded for further 

action consistent with this order. 

 2 Albert F. Ranieri, 55 ECAB 598 (2004). 

3 B.S., Docket No. 12-137 (issued June 19, 2012). 
3

Issued: September 20, 2016 

Washington, DC 

 

 Christopher J. Godfrey, Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board 

 

 Alec J. Koromilas, Alternate Judge 

 Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board