Lopez v. Pennsuco Cement & Aggregates, Inc., WW-63
| Decision Date | 21 July 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. WW-63,WW-63 |
| Citation | 401 So.2d 875 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Osvaldo LOPEZ, Appellant, v. PENNSUCO CEMENT & AGGREGATES, INC., Insurance Company of North America and the Division of Workers' Compensation, Appellees. |
Alfred D. Bieley, Miami, for appellant.
Summers Warden, Miami, for appellees.
Claimant appeals an order denying his claim for nursing and attendant care services. He contends that the order does not accord with the evidence in the record. We agree and reverse.
Claimant is permanently and totally disabled as a result of the inhalation of manganese fumes in the course and scope of his employment. Because of the manganese poisoning, claimant has difficulty in walking, suffers from alterations in gait and balance, speech disorders, clumsiness of movements, and an expressionless face. In the morning, his wife helps him out of bed, helps him attend to personal functions, assists him in dressing, fixes his food, and puts out his medicine. Sometimes after his wife leaves for work, he feels so bad he is unable to get up and eat his lunch, take his medicine, or go to the bathroom. Without help, he is unable to do his physical therapy exercises which his therapist testified he must do to prevent further deterioration. On occasion, claimant has gotten dizzy, fallen on the floor, and remained there until his wife comes home from work. His wife testified she loses time from work because she has to care for her husband. Further, she corroborated her husband's testimony concerning his falls stating that she has arrived home on several occasions and found her husband lying on the floor in a fallen position, from which he is unable to extricate himself. He has hurt himself in these falls, although not badly. Dr. Penalvar, a specialist in manganese poisoning, testified that the biggest problem with manganese poisoning patients is that they fall repeatedly. He felt claimant was deteriorating physically and mentally and that claimant needs a person to assist him continuously to prevent him from having a serious injury such as a fracture. On the basis of this record, the deputy commissioner found that the frequency of claimant's falls does not warrant continual attendant care at this time. He recognized that at some time in the future, claimant may require someone to help him 100% of the time. However, he did not feel the evidence establishes this at the present time. The claim for attendant care and...
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