Our partner Brittany Turner was recently successful in overturning a Law Judge decision which had established post-traumatic stress disorder in a case where a corrections officer claimed that condition after unsuccessfully trying to revive an inmate with CPR.
The claimant testified that in the course of her employment as a sergeant for the Department of Corrections, she was called along with a facility nurse to respond to a medical emergency in one of the housing units at the facility to which she is assigned. Although the inmate was initially alert and breathing, once transported to the hospital unit, the inmate became unresponsive. The claimant, along with other officers, began to perform CPR on the inmate, taking turns as the procedure became taxing. Despite medical intervention, the inmate was pronounced dead at the scene. The claimant claimed to be very upset and overwhelmed. Although she denied experiencing anything like this with an inmate, she did admit that she had a doctor, a fellow employee, die in her presence. An employer witness testified that the claimant performed CPR for only about one minute. The witness also testified that corrections officers have a duty to provide lifesaving measures to inmates. The witness also testified there had been several inmate deaths in the facility over the past several years.
On this record, the Law Judge established the claim for PTSD. Brittany took an application for board review from this decision. She successfully argued that this claimant did not suffer stress greater than that which other corrections officers experience. In agreeing with Britney and reversing the claim, the Board Panel noted that a recent amendment to the law easing the burden for establishing stress claims for certain professionals does not apply to corrections officers. The panel noted that the claimant is a corrections professional, who along with several others, performed CPR on the inmate who ultimately passed away. Britany pointed out that the claimant had conceded she is trained to provide first aid and CPR as part of her job. The Board Panel also credited Brittany’s argument that the employer witness had testified the duties of the corrections officers include providing life-saving measures to inmates and that indeed similar lifesaving measures were performed by other officers in the very same facility in numerous prior cases.
We congratulate Brittany for a job well done in developing a record with crucial facts that ultimately persuaded the Board Panel that although what the claimant experienced was truly unfortunate, under the circumstances it did not rise to the level of a compensable stress claim under the New York State Workers’ Compensation Law.
