CSR | July 2017 | News
quired a knee brace and couldn't
walk very well — but an appeals
resolution officer determined
her carpal tunnel syndrome had
not significantly deteriorated
after the January 2012 accident.
In addition, her knees hadn't
worsened and the worker wasn't
entitled to additional benefits
beyond a few months after the
accident.
The worker had decompres-
sion surgery of her right wrist in
2013 that reduced the numbness
in that hand by about half, but
there was still pain.
The worker appealed to the
Workplace Safety and Insurance
Appeals Tribunal, claiming her
knee injuries and carpal tun-
nel syndrome were keeping her
from being able to work and they
should be deemed a permanent
impairment. She said her hands
were never the same after the
slip and fall and the swelling had
gotten worse, making it difficult
to grip things.
The tribunal noted that it had
already been established that the
worker's carpal tunnel syndrome
in both hands was a pre-existing
condition at the time of the Janu-
ary 2012 workplace accident. The
question of whether the worker
deserved additional entitlement
for it depended on whether the
slip and fall aggravated it to the
point where it never returned to
its pre-accident state.
The tribunal found that the
worker's condition didn't resolve
after her 1998 injury, but she
was able to work without treat-
ment for more than a decade be-
fore the accident. She had mild
symptoms, but it didn't prevent
her from performing her job du-
ties with some restrictions such
as limited keyboarding each day.
The symptoms were manage-
able, said the tribunal.
The tribunal also found that
following the accident, the work-
er's symptoms became more
acute and she required more
treatment. She needed modified
duties and wore braces, and her
pain wasn't as manageable, to
the point where she had surgery
to help relieve the pain in her
right hand.
The tribunal found that the
worker's bilateral wrist and hand
symptoms worsened after the
accident and needed more treat-
ment. As a result, her carpal tun-
nel syndrome was permanently
aggravated in the work accident
and warranted a non-economic
loss assessment for benefits.
As for the worker's knees, it
was clear their injuries stemmed
from the workplace accident,
said the tribunal. She continued
to have restrictions months later
and her medical reports indi-
cated abnormalities. The worker
still experienced pain in both
knees and had difficulty with her
mobility — and she had no his-
tory of knee problems before the
work accident.
The tribunal noted that "on-
going entitlement is established
where the accident continues
to be a significant contributing
factor in the worker's ongoing
complaints even if other fac-
tors may have also contributed."
Since there was no evidence of
a pre-existing condition in the
worker's knees and medical re-
ports attributed the abnormali-
ties in her knees to the accident,
the tribunal found the worker
had entitlement for a bilateral
knee impairment.
The tribunal remitted the
matter back to the WSIB for as-
sessment of non-economic loss
benefits for both her carpal tun-
nel syndrome and knee impair-
ment.
For more information see:
• Decision No. 955/17, 2017
CarswellOnt 6953 (Ont.
Workplace Safety & Insurance
Appeals Trib.).
Workplace fall < pg. 5
Worker was able to work with original injury
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