Case details

Fall down elevator shaft resulted in permanent disability: worker

SUMMARY

$2356658.95

Amount

Settlement

Result type

Not present

Ruling
KEYWORDS
back, brain, brain damage, brain injury, cognition, concentration, depression, fracture, head, headaches, impairment, mental, neck, psychological, sensory, speech, transverse process, transverse process head, traumatic brain injury, vertebra, vision
FACTS
On March 20, 2013, applicant Juan Naranjo, 46, a construction worker, was working in Bear Valley. He fell into an open elevator shaft, and he suffered of his head. Naranjo filed a workers’ compensation claim against his employer, M.K. Drywall, which was insured by State Compensation Insurance Fund. Naranjo sought workers’ compensation benefits., Naranjo stepped into the open elevator shaft at the construction site and fell two floors down. He sustained a traumatic brain injury and lost consciousness upon impact. He also sustained a scalp laceration; fractures at L2, L3 and L4; and transverse process fractures of the thoracic spine at T3 and T4. Naranjo was taken to Bear Valley Community Hospital, in Big Bear Lake, where his scalp laceration was addressed. He was then transferred to Loma Linda University Medical Center, in Loma Linda, where he was admitted and treated for several days. After several years of limited treatment, Naranjo began neurorehabilitation and had various consults with specialists in the field of brain-injury rehabilitation. Naranjo continues to complain of headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, depression, memory problems and decreased concentration. He also claimed he suffers from difficulties sustaining attention. Medical and legal evaluators opined that Naranjo would benefit from ongoing, supported living services to address psychiatric and behavioral issues that Naranjo would have to deal with for the rest of his life. The respondent’s counsel accepted Naranjo’s alleged but disputed the nature and extent of those .
COURT
Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, CA

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