Second Injury While on Crutches

After an employee injured his right ankle at work, the doctor advised him to use crutches. Nine days after the accident he returned to see his doctor. On the way home from this visit, when he stopped to use the bathroom in a shopping mall, his crutches slid out from under him. He fell, and injured his right elbow.

The employer argued that the fall at the shopping mall was a new accident, for which the claimant could not recover workers’ compensation benefits, since the accident happened away from the employer’s premises. It argued that even if the foot injury was due to work, the arm injury in the shopping mall was not. However, the Workers’ Compensation Commission found that the two falls constituted a single work-related accident, and this decision was affirmed by the Illinois Appellate Court. The Court stated that “but for the first injury the employee would not have been using crutches and the subsequent accident was a natural consequence flowing from the original fall.” The Court held that “where the work injury itself causes a subsequent injury, the claim of causation is not broken.”

Proving that a second accident, which happens away from the workplace, is due to an earlier work injury is a very difficult task. But this case teaches that it can be done. If you have any questions on the subject, please call us.