SUNSTROKE ALLEGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21596, 14 September 1933, Page 11

SUNSTROKE ALLEGED

QUARRYMAN'S CLAIM COMPENSATION SOUGHT COMPANY DENIES LIABILITY The question whether sunstroke can bo regarded as an "accident" within the meaning of the Workers' Compensation Aot was raised in a claim commenced in the Arbitration Court yesterday. The plaintiff , was Robert Hunter Dowie, of Te Kuiti, aged 55, labourer (Mr. Mackcrsey), who sought compensation from his previous employer, the Waitomo Lime Company, Limited (Mr. Hore). Plaintiff was employed on January 11 as a in the company's lime quarry on the Te Kumi Road, "Te Kuiti. Ho alleged that he had been obliged to work in a confined space and exposed to the full rays of the sun. January 11 Avas an exceptionally hot and cloudless day, and he contracted sunstroke or heat apoplexy. He claimed that the attack arose out, of his employment by the company and was an accident within the meaning of the Act. He was still totally incapacitated for work. His average weekly earnings had been £3 12s 6d, and ho asked for compensation in accordance with the Act and for such other' relief as the Court might think fit. Denial by Company The defence denied that plaintifl had suffered from sunstroke, or that tho company was in any way liable. It denied that sunstroke could be treated as an accident for the purposes of the Act. Plaintiff stated that there was no shade in tho quarry all day. He was quite fit when ho started .work at 8 a.m., but in the afternoon he had tho attack. Dr. C. W. Isaac, of Te Kuiti, said that ho found plaintiff in great pain obviously due to muscular cramp, mostly of the abdomen and legs. Witness diagnosed the case as one of heat exhaustion from sunstroke. He did not see anything in the man's condition to suggest bacterial infection. Pleurisy had followed. Dr. A. Eisdell Moore said he had considerable experience in the tropics and Mesopotamia of heat stroke and of sunstroke. Heat stroke such as might occur in a stoke room was different from tropical sunstroke. This man's case was not typical of either, but it was a case of effects of heat. Plaintiff was in a condition of profound neurasthenia, and he would suffer from permanent disability on account of definite heart weakness and of the grave risk ho would run if he had to work in heat again. He would probablv- havc a 15 per cent permanent disability on account of his heart. Sunstroke was a very rare thing here. Evidence of Doctors Dr. E. J. Cronin gave the opinion that plaintiff had suffered from an attack of heat exhaustion, coupled with heat cramps. He was now suffering from traumatic neurasthenia. Dr. P. F. Carrick said he had had 34 years' tropical experience in India, Burma and Persia. He considered plaintiff's case was one of heat stroke, but he would not particularise it as heat exhaustion. It was sun-trauma-tism, which was the result of direct exposure to the sun. Anything, over 85 degrees of atmospheric temperature was considered dangerous in temperate climates, and anything over 110 degrees in the tropics. He had found plaintiff in a state of marked neurasthenia. His heart was somewhat disorganised, and he had a pleuritic lung. Witness recalled a war-time incident in which 25 men died from heat stroke in a troop train from Karachi to Peshawar, although there had been no direct exposure to the sun. The case was adjourned until this afternoon.