MEDICAL PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 20

MEDICAL PROBLEM

WATERSIDE!!/S CLAIM CONDITION OF HEART FINDrNG FOR THE DEFENCE 1 One of the longest judgments yet delivered by the Arbitration Court in a case under the Workers Compensation Act, comprising 31 typed foolscap sheets, was received in Auckland yesterday. All except about half a page consists of the report of a medical referee, Dr. F. Fitchctt, professor of | clinical medicine at the University of Otago, to whom the evidence and other documents were forwarded for the solution of a dim cult diagnostic problem 011 which seven Auckland doctors had given conflicting opinions. The case, which was : of considerable j interest to employers of waterfront labour, was brought by Hurry Eagle, of Mount Eden, waterside worker, j against Leonard and Dingley, Limited, stevedores. The plaintiff, a man of 54, alleged that while attempting to move a drum of tallow which had become jammed he felt a severe chest pain. This obliged him to cease work, and he had been disabled ever since. It was shown that after his breakdown he was suffering from heart trouble, and the question to be decided was whether his condition had been caused or contributed to by his employment. After reviewing the facts and the Auckland medical opinions in great detail Dr. Fitchett found that the plaintiff, before the alleged accident, was suffering from diseaso of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart, and that his incapacity was due solely to a natural complication in the course of the disease. His effort to move tlio drum brought on an attack of angina pectoris, but the existing diseaso had already made him liable to such attacks, and the one in question could not be # called _to account for his subsequent incapacity. The Court accepted the finding of the medical referee and gave judgment for the defendant company. At the hearing Mr. Sullivan appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. Hore for the defendant.