Was Bartender’s Heart Attack Linked to Music Fest Work?

What Do You Think?

Rochester, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- Whether a heart attack is linked to work often hinges on multiple factors, such medical experts’ testimony, the employee’s cardiovascular health, and when and where the heart attack occurred.

A case involving a worker who moonlighted tending bar at a music festival is a case in point. While sleeping during the early morning hours of May 19, 2018, after a long day at two jobs, his heart stopped breathing.

The workers’ compensation board denied the wife’s claim, saying the employee’s death wasn’t causally related to his work. But what do you think?

The festival where the employee worked ran from May 10 through May 18. He had a tough schedule; he worked at an office job from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for another employer. After that, he would go to the festival and work until 11 p.m.

On Thursday, May 17, he told his wife he had pain in his left shoulder and chest. The following morning, according to the wife, he was rotating his left arm and looking tired and pale. She last spoke to him around 10:30 pm on May 18 when he was still at the festival. After his shift, he went to a bar with coworkers. Back in bed that night, he went into cardiac arrest at 4:20 a.m. and died.

Medical records desribed him as being obese, using tobacco, and having poor routine medical care. The death certificate and autopsy report indicated the cause of death as hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease with morbid obesity as a significant contributing condition.

The wife’s internal medicine consultant concluded that the death was causally-related to employment at the festival because the worker supposedly lifted a cumulative total of approximately 3,385 pounds during his shift there on May 18. His coworkers, however, said that he was not lifting heavy kegs or performing other strenuous labor, mainly just serving drinks. 

The workers’ compensation carrier's independent consultant found that the employee had significant coronary artery disease which would not be caused by his work activity.

An injury is compensable under the workers’ compensation statute only if it arises out of and in the course of his employment 

Was the employee’s widow entitled to benefits?

A. Yes. The widow’s consultant established that the death was related to the heavy lifting the employee had to do at the festival.

B. No. The statements of the coworkers and of the carrier’s consultant indicated the death was more likely the result of long-standing cardiovascular disease.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Rizzo v. The Springut Group, Inc., No. CV-23-0751 (N.Y. App. Div. 11/07/24), which held that the board correctly determined that the employee’s death did not arise out of and in the course of his employment 

The court was unconvinced by the claimant's consultant. The consultant’s finding that the employee was lifting thousands of pounds on the night before his death was undermined by the coworkers’ testimony. 

“[S]everal of decedent's coworkers … revealed that decedent principally worked as a bartender and/or bar manager during the festival, which consisted of light-duty work and clean up, and that decedent was not lifting heavy kegs of beer at the festival or performing other strenuous labor,” the court wrote. 

Moreover, the worker died in his sleep several hours after his shift ended. Also, the death certificate attributed the death to cardiovascular disease, rather than an acute myocardial infarction caused by strenuous physical activity. 

The consultant also failed to account for the fact that the employee had symptoms on May 17, well before he died.

The court affirmed the board’s denial of the claim.

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