Opinion ID: 2026801
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Work-related

Text: Finally, we address the Board's determination that Kouzoukas' injury was not work-related. A claimant who is found to be disabled may be awarded a duty disability benefit if the disability stemmed from a work-related incident. Otherwise, she may be awarded a nonduty disability benefit. See 40 ILCS 5/5-154, 5-155 (West 2006). In the case at bar, the Board concluded that Kouzoukas was not disabled but that, even if she was disabled, she failed to prove her July 25, 2004, injury was the cause of her disability. We find this determination by the Board to be against the manifest weight of the evidence. Although the record shows that Dr. Spencer opined that the source of Kouzoukas' pain might be gynecological or gastrointestinal, no other doctor who treated Kouzoukas believed that her pain stemmed from something other than the July 25, 2004, work-related incident. Dr. Konowitz referred Kouzoukas for an evaluation of her gastric infection, but that infection was never determined to be a source of Kouzoukas' pain. Again, all of the evidence and testimony, including that of the Board's physician, linked Kouzoukas' disabling pain to the July 25, 2004, back-strain injury that occurred when she was on patrol as a police officer. Therefore, the Board's conclusion that Kouzoukas' disability was not work-related is against the manifest weight of the evidence.