Opinion ID: 1257602
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: there is substantial competent evidence to support the findings.

Text: Swanson asserts that the Commission's findings are not supported by substantial competent evidence. After a review of the record, only one portion of her argument on this issue causes us any pause. Swanson contends that Dr. Kennedy's testimony that the symptoms caused by the work-related accident had resolved before the automobile accident was not competent. After analyzing the evidence on this point, we disagree. Dr. Kennedy acknowledged that he did not see Swanson after she was released from the hospital on January 27, 1981, until February 16, 1981, when he again saw her in the hospital following the automobile accident. He stated that he talked to Swanson by phone on February 2 and 9, 1981. When asked the basis of his testimony that he had tentatively released Swanson to return to work on February 16, 1981, Dr. Kennedy stated: [O]n February 23 I wrote a letter, and this was after her second hospitalization, that it had been anticipated that she would return to work on February 16. I do not have recorded in my notes on what that was arrived at, but that was after the second accident, and somehow at that point in time I would have had information to make that statement, whether it was talking with her in the hospital and finding out that her symptoms had essentially resolved or what. Otherwise I would have dictated the letter that her symptoms persisted and had been worsened by the accident rather than stating flatly at that time in regards to the industrial accident she had been released to work. Dr. Kennedy also testified that in his telephone conversation with Swanson on February 9, 1981, he told her to increase her housework gradually, and that he hoped to get her back to work by February 16, 1981. This is confirmed by Swanson's own testimony that on February 9th Dr. Kennedy released her to return to work on February 16th. Swanson testified that she called Dr. Kennedy's office on February 13th to tell him that she was sick, was dizzy, had a headache, had a swollen arm, and couldn't move her arm very well. She said she didn't think she could go to work on February 16th. Swanson admitted that she did not speak to Dr. Kennedy on February 13th but only to a young woman who told her the doctor was not in that day and to call again on February 16th. Dr. Kennedy testified that there was no record in his office of a phone call by Swanson on February 13th. He said it was the policy of his office that if a patient called and if the doctor were not available, his secretaries would make note of the call in the patient's chart. The Commission was entitled to weigh the testimony offered on this point to determine whether Dr. Kennedy had a sufficient foundation for his opinion. We reject the contention that Dr. Kennedy's testimony was not competent evidence to support the finding that Swanson's symptoms from the work-related accident had essentially resolved prior to the automobile accident.