Workers' Comp – Occupational Disease – Rotator Cuff Tear

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Where the reprographics technician was required to lift rolls of paper 36 inches long and 30 to 35 pounds in weight and place them in a machine, and also was required to use her right arm to cut paper approximately 400 times a day with motions that required constant turning and twisting of the right arm, and her physician’s report stated that she had a history of right shoulder pain due to chronic lifting and diagnosed the technician as having a rotator cuff tear, claimant was entitled to benefits for her occupational disease.

When credible evidence supports a finding that a disease is causally related to the employment and not causally related to other factors, such a finding is conclusive and binding on this court. We conclude that the record contains credible evidence to support the commission’s conclusion that claimant’s condition flowed from her employment as a natural consequence.

TAD Technical Services Corp. v. Fletcher (Benton) No. 0720-92-4, Feb. 23, 1993; Workers’ Comp.Comm.; Russell G. Henshall for appellants; Nancy Marie Fletcher, pro se. VLW 093-7-107, 4 pp.