Opinion ID: 1059658
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: injury by accident

Text: This Court recently addressed the requirements of an injury by accident in Southern Express v. Green, 257 Va. 181, 509 S.E.2d 836 (1999). There, we held that an injury by accident occurs when the injury appears suddenly at a particular time and place[,] and upon a particular occasion[;] when it is caused by an identifiable incident[,] or sudden precipitating event[;] and when the injury results in an obvious mechanical or structural change in the human body. Id. at 187, 509 S.E.2d at 839. The circuit court found all these factors present with regard to Combs' injury, and we agree. At the outset, it must be emphasized that Combs' injury is not the aneurysm itself. Instead, her injury is the aggravation, exacerbation, and/or acceleration of the aneurysm. That injury resulted from the alleged negligent emergency medical care, or lack thereof, that she received from Virginia Power and its EHS employees after she suffered a severe headache during the aerobics class. Thus, Combs' argument that there is no evidence with regard to when the aneurysm initially started leaking or when she experienced the first onset of symptoms is irrelevant to the question whether she sustained an injury by accident. The record in this case, in particular Combs' motion for judgment, demonstrates that she suffered an injury by accident under Code § 65.2-101. The particular time, place, and occasion of her injury was at the EHS quiet room in Virginia Power's Richmond office, during the two to three hours that elapsed from when she first developed the headache and was taken to the quiet room until she was transported to the hospital. The identifiable or precipitating event was the alleged negligent emergency medical treatment that she received during this span of time. Finally, Combs' paralysis and cognitive brain damage represent the mechanical or structural changes in her body that resulted from her injury. Thus, all the requirements of an injury by accident are present in this case. See Winn v. Geo. A. Hormel & Co., 252 Neb. 29, 560 N.W.2d 143, 149 (1997)(holding that negligent medical treatment at employer's first-aid medical facility may constitute accident).