INJURY TO BACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22845, 28 September 1937, Page 15

INJURY TO BACK

COMPENSATION GIVEN OLD ACCIDENT RECALLED Compensation amounting to £lO7 18s 3d, with £1 medical expenses, costs £lO 10s, and witnesses' expenses, have been awarded by the Arbitration Court to Thomas Long (Mr. Sullivan), an engineer, who fell while carrying a box of lard down concrete steps on November 4, 1936. Ho brought action against his employers, the Auckland Meat Company, Limited (Mr. Hore), alleging that his spine had been permanently injured. Liability to pay compensation wns admitted, and it was the amount properly payable that was at issue.

The plaintiff fell into an engine pit while 011 active service in Belgium, after which he was treated for leg and rib injuries. An interesting feature of the case was that the medical evidence indicated that Long was treated at that time for vertebral injuries, but that their existence was not disclosed to him. Neurasthenia was a common complication following a fractured vertebra, and was mainly due to the popular belief that a man with a "broken back" was completely and permanently crippled. The editor of the Lancet had stated that in his practice the patient was not allowed to know that there was a suspected injury to the vertebra, and probably for that reason no case in which the precaution was taken had developed neurasthenia.

Summarising the medical evidence, the Court said tho evidence was strongly in favour of the conclusions that there was no fracture injury on November 4 ; but that, assuming there was such injury, plaintiff hnd fully recovered, and that he was now suffering from neurasthenia. The Court was satisfied that all along he had behaved in good faith. Allowing him the benefit of any doubt, it granted him full weekly compensation to the date of hearing, and in addition 13 weeks' full compensation.