Did Shoveling Snow Stop Construction Manager’s Heart – or was it Just Cigarettes?

What Do You Think?

Montgomery, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) -- A preexisting condition can bar an employee from recovering for an accidental injury at work. But what if multiple factors–not just the pre-existing condition–caused the accident? Can the employee obtain workers’ compensation benefits? 

A case involving a construction manager for a property developer answers that question. The developer was shoveling snow at a home build site when he experienced several minutes of chest pain and shortness of breath. The ambulance soon arrived. He told the paramedics his difficulty breathing was a 7 out of 10. Once in the ambulance, he went into cardiac arrest. He died in the ER.

The employee had rarely used alcohol in his life, and took a daily multivitamin. He smoked a pack of cigarettes every day and had recently experienced stress due to his mother's recent health issues.

The employer’s expert testified that the death was not related to shoveling but to the decedent's "abnormal heart muscle." He stated that the employee died from a spontaneous cardiac arrhythmia. In his initial report, he wrote that "given the temporal relationship between his shoveling activities and his development of chest pain, it would make sense that the two were related." In his subsequent report, however, he said he "stood by" his opinions that the death was unrelated to the shoveling.

The other side’s medical expert stated that the "event was obviously brought on or aggravated by physical exertion," given that the employee developed symptoms consistent with cardiac ischemia while shoveling snow. He stated that a spontaneous cardiac arrhythmia does not manifest itself as several minutes of chest pain and shortness of breath.

The Commission found that the decedent's death was not causally related to his employment. The employee’s surviving child appealed.

In cases involving a preexisting condition, an employee can still recover workers’ compensation. But to do so, he needs to show that the injury at work aggravated or accelerated the preexisting disease. In this way, the employee can show his current condition is causally connected to the work-related injury and not simply the result of a normal degenerative process of the preexisting condition.

Was the heart attack causally related to shoveling?

A. Yes. His symptoms just prior to going into cardiac arrest suggested the two were connected.

B. No. He had a very unhealthy smoking habit and an enlarged heart.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Cronk v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Comm’n, No. 1-22-1878WC (Ill. App. Ct. 05/10/24), which held that the shoveling and death were causally linked.

The court acknowledged that other factors may have been at play, such as his daily smoking habit. Nevertheless, for an employee to recover benefits, the accident at work need not be the sole or even primary cause of the death. It only needs to be one of the factors that caused the death.

The court rejected the employer’s medical expert’s view that the decedent suffered a spontaneous cardiac arrhythmia that was unrelated to physical exertion. It pointed to the opposing medical expert’s statement that because the decedent developed symptoms consistent with cardiac ischemia while shoveling snow, the event was brought on or aggravated by the physical activity. 

Further, the court pointed to the employer’s medical expert’s statement that given the closeness in time of the activity and cardiac arrest, “it made sense that the two were related.” The expert’s decision to stand by his conclusion that the two were unrelated put the credibility of his testimony into question, the court suggested.

The commission erred in relying on the employer’s expert given that the “evidence, as acknowledged in the testimonies of both medical experts, demonstrates that shoveling the snow was a contributing factor in decedent's resulting condition of ill-being,” the court wrote.

The court reversed the Commission’s decision.

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