Sepulvado v. Mansfield Hardwood Lumber Co., 8225

Citation75 So.2d 529
Decision Date29 October 1954
Docket NumberNo. 8225,8225
PartiesMrs. Mary Frances SEPULVADO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MANSFIELD HARDWOOD LUMBER COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtCourt of Appeal of Louisiana (US)

Fraser & Fraser, Many, for appellant.

Godfrey & Edwards, Many, for appellee.

AYRES, Judge.

There was judgment in favor of the plaintiff individually and for the use and benefit of her eleven-year old minor daughter for compensation as the result of the death of the husband and father, Jesse Sepulvado, against defendant as Sepulvado's employer, in the sum of $23 per week for a period of 300 weeks, dating from his death September 28, 1953, and for funeral expense in the sum of $250.

On the aforesaid date and for several months prior thereto, decedent was employed by the defendant as a log cutter. Plaintiff alleged and the evidence showed that on said date decedent, a large man approximately six feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, was cutting logs with a cross-cut saw for the defendant at Blue Lake in the Sabine River bottom in Sabine Parish, Louisiana; that he had been cutting hardwood timber all that morning; that after completing the cutting of a large oak tree about noontime, sepulvado and his partner stopped possibly thirty minutes for lunch, after which they began sawing another hardwood tree, when, a few minutes later, Sepulvado was stricken with a severe pain in the right side of his chest, forcing him to discontinue his work and causing him to lie down for several minutes. This created serious concern for his welfare among his fellow employees, who suggested they take him to a doctor. Saying that the pain had left him, the offer was declined and he returned to work. Soon thereafter the excruciating pain reoccurred. He was then carried some ten or twelve miles to a clinic at Zwolle and died about 3:30 P. M. of the same day. The same evening an autopsy was performed and a diagnosis of death from coronary thrombosis occurring during decedent's working hours was made.

It was further alleged and established that the timber that decedent had completed sawing was a large oak tree, which, with some gum, was the kind and character of timber worked during the day. This work required great physical exertion and effort on the part of the laborers. The weather was extremely hot and dry. The official temperature as recorded by the Shreveport Weather Bureau reached 101 during the day. Deceased, in the performance of his labor, was directly exposed to the sun and heat.

The contention of plaintiff presenting the principal issue herein to be determined is that decedent's death, due to a condition diagnosed as coronary thrombosis, was caused, precipitated and brought about by deceased's strenuous physical exertion and strain and exposure to unusual heat occasioned by his labor. Defendant, however, contended that the decedent died of natural causes, neither precipitated nor brought about by his employment.

The material facts are not in dispute. From a judgment rendered in plaintiff's favor, defendant has appealed and brought the matter before us for review.

The issue presented for decision is the question of causal connection of Sepulvado's employment and his death, as to whether his death, due to coronary thrombosis, was caused, precipitated and brought about by his strenuous physical exertion and strain and exposure to unusual heat occasioned by his work.

On the day of his death, Sepulvado arose early, as was his custom, and was apparently in good health, jolly and in good spirits as he was conveyed with nineteen others to his employment. He was fifty years of age. It was unknown as to when he had ever previously sought medical attention.

For a reversal of the judgment, defendant contends that the court below had before it a mere question of the application of the Compensation Law of Louisiana to the factual situation recited hereinabove and contended that an error was made in said application in the light of the medical evidence presented in this case. Drs. O. L. Sanders, S. W. Boyce and Frank T. Dienst, Jr., testified on behalf of the plaintiff. The defendant's experts were Drs. Loyd H. Murdock and M. D. Hargrove.

Dr. Sanders testified that one of the accepted causes of coronary thrombosis is pathological changes in the coronary arteries in which there is formation of atheromatous plaques and in which there is blood vessel formation deposits crystallized in the wall of the arteries, with the resulting narrowing of the lumen of the arteries, which is the opening in the blood vessels through which the blood flows. In the formation of the occlusion or thrombosis, there is hemorrhaging from capillaries in the wall of the coronary artery, causing a rupture in the lining thereof and the formation of a blood clot or thrombus. This stops the blood supply to that portion of the heart muscle which receives its blood supply from that portion of the artery.

Dr. Boyce further explained that the hardening of the arteries means that the normal elastic wall of the arteries is replaced by deposits of calcium, thus hardening the arteries as well as reducing their openings for the blood flow. As this condition increases, the muscles beyond this constricted area fail to get sufficient blood to supply the necessary oxygen, producing a condition known as anoxia or ischemia, the former designating a lack of oxygen and the latter a lack of blood. He says that under stress and strain, excitement and extreme exercise, resulting in more rapid heart beat and folwing of blood, this calcium plaque may be broken or shaken loose from the walls of the arteries, flow down and congest the blood stream and stop up the arteries. Another condition may arise in connection with calcium plaques in the blood stream, accounted for by an abscess forming around the substance which, under stress and strain and hard beating, will rupture and close the artery. Also where the calcium plaque is embedded in the wall of the small arterioles, very small arteries, supplying the wall of the artery, come out of the lumen of the artery and go around this calcium plaque, which plaque, with its gradual increase in size and under stress and strain of severe exercise, cuts these small arteries where it impinges over the edge of the deposit, causing a hermorrhage and the formation of a blood clot, which may close the artery.

Dr. Dienst's testimony is in accord with that of Dr. Sanders and Dr. Boyce as to the pathology of coronary thrombosis.

In the report by Dr. S. D. Cummins on the autopsy performed by him, wherein the cause of death was stated to be due to coronary thrombosis, it is stated, among others, these anatomical changes: First, thrombosis of the first descending branch of the left coronary artery; and, second, congestion of the myocardium supplied by this branch of the coronary artery. The report itself contains these pertinent expressions:

'Over the anterior wall of the left ventricle there are occasional petechial hemorrhages in the epicardium. * * * Sectioning through the anterior wall of the left ventricle reveals a marked hemorrhagic appearance of the myocardium that extends laterally over the anterior half of the left ventricle wall from the base to the apex and into the interventricular septum anteriorly through approximately one-half of the interventricular septum.

'* * * The first descending branch of the left coronary artery shows a thrombus in its first cm. from its orifice with complete obliteration of its lumen and the thrombus overlies an atheromatous plaque which narrows the lumen markedly. The thrombus extends over an area measuring 9 mm. in length. Distal to the thrombus there is arteriosclerosis.'

The correctness of the theory of plaintiff's experts is corroborated by Dr. Cummins' findings.

Dr. Hargrove, testifying for the defendant, taking into consideration the anatomical diagnosis that appeared on the autopsy report, stated that a coronary thrombosis was a clot formed in one of the coronary vessels conveying bloos to the heart muscle, depriving such area of the heart muscle of its necessary and indispensable blood supply.

Dr. Sanders was of the opinion that in many instances of coronary thrombosis that strenuous physical labor or exercise was the precipitating cause of the creation of a coronary thrombosis; that the bleeding within the walls of the artery in the presence of an arteriosclerosed plaque might be brought about by emotional stress and excitement and that these hemorrhages may by created within the arterial walls through physical exertion and effort and emotional stress through the increase in rate of blood flow elevating the pressure within the capillaries. He was of the opinion that, in view of the evidence of this case, the exertion of Sepulvado's work precipitated the attack and that the fact of the unseasonably hot weather and the fact that Sepulvado was exposed to the sun increased the likelihood of such an attack.

Dr. Boyce stated:

'I have read the copy of the autopsy report, and it is my opinion that pulling that saw was, in this case, the exciting factor which caused the catastrophe in the coronary artery of this man; and my opinion also is, that had this man known what his attack was and been taken over immediately by a doctor, he might have been saved and if he had done that and hadn't gone back to the same work which excited the same thing again, but more severely, and took his life.'

The doctor was of the further opinion that all pathological conditions in coronary occlusion are influenced and aggravated by exertion and that exertion is an exciting factor in the ideology of each of those conditions. It was his opinion that the increase of the heart rate through excitement, stress and strain from two to three times its normal force or speed, in addition to the activity of the heart...

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