Opinion ID: 2468742
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Brown Case[1]

Text: Alice Brown, the plaintiff in the consolidated case on appeal, was fifty years old at the time of trial. She has a high-school education and has completed some college study. For approximately ten years, Brown worked in food service for the defendant employer, Campbell County Board of Education. On October 6, 1992, while trying to open a steam table in the kitchen at the elementary school where she worked, Brown suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder. Later that month Brown was injured again when she fell on her buttocks while taking inventory in the stock room at the school. Brown's family physician, Dr. Lee Durham, a family practitioner, opined that Brown's work-related injuries aggravated her pre-existing emotional problems of severe and chronic depression. Dr. Durham could not provide a percentage of permanent mental disability under the AMA Guides because the Guides provide no such numerical percentages. Brown could, however, be classified as having marked impairment under the AMA Guides due to her psychological problems. [2] Realizing that Brown's back and neck conditions needed specialty care, Dr. Durham referred her to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Eugenio Vargas. Dr. Vargas first saw Brown in December, 1992. After extensive testing, Dr. Vargas found disk abnormalities, but felt that Brown's back and neck problems were muscular-ligamentous in nature and did not require surgery. Dr. Vargas found no objective indication that Brown had suffered a permanent injury as a result of the October 1992 work incidents. Consequently, he assessed no anatomical impairment, and referred Brown back to Dr. Durham for physical therapy. Dr. William Kennedy, the same orthopedic surgeon that evaluated Harless, also evaluated Brown. Dr. Kennedy assessed an anatomical impairment rating of 21% to the whole body as a result of Brown's back and neck conditions. [3] According to Dr. Hankins, her vocational disability following the October injuries is at least 95%.