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This issue was addressed by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in Stewart v. Goulston Technologies, Inc. (2022).
In this case the injured employee was working in a chemical mixing plant. On the date of injury, the injured employee remembers feeling nauseated and leaving his work area to see if he would feel better. However, after this, all the injured employee remembers is waking up at the bottom of 15 stairs, wherein he allegedly passed out and fell down the stairs.
There was medical evidence offered noting the injured employee’s pre-existing medical conditions which may have caused him to pass out on the date of injury. However, the injured employee’s doctor was unable to definitively say what caused him to pass out on the date of injury.
The Court determined that because this was an “unexplained” fall that the injured employee was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits due to his workplace injury. The Court further noted that even if there was evidence that the reason the injured employee passed out was not due to his work, the fact it happened when he was going downstairs created an “increased risk” of injury and would also result in his entitlement to workers’ compensation benefit for his workplace injury.
Should you have any questions about this or any of issues involving your work-related injury, please feel free to reach out to one of the Board-Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardinal Law Partners for a free consultation by calling (833) 444-4127.
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