Winning Illinois workers’ compensation cases for a heart attack can be tricky. Typically if you have one, you are older and it’s not unusual for that to happen. When you add in factors like high cholesterol, smoking, being overweight, etc. it’s not a surprise when someone with risk factors has a heart attack.
If you are at work and have one, that’s not enough to prove your case and win work comp benefits. You have to show that something about the job increased your risk for having one. Having a stressful job isn’t enough usually without other factors.
An example of a winning case would be if your job put significant physical stress on your body in a way that could affect your heart rate. Working in extreme heat or cold is one example. Having to do a lot of heavy lifting is another.
In a recent case, the financially dependent son of a worker who died of a heart attack on the job was able to win death benefits by proving the job contributed to the heart attack.
In that case, a construction worker was shoveling snow when he began to have trouble breathing. 911 was called and paramedics arrived, but he suffered cardiac arrest and died the next day. On the death certificate, the coroner listed hypertensive heart disease as the immediate cause of death, with coronary artery disease as a significant contributing factor.
The employer through their insurance company hired an expert to review his medical records and felt that the attack occurred due to low good cholesterol and a history of smoking. He went on to state that the death was not related to physical exertion.
The doctor for the family though reviewed the evidence and found that physical exertion brought on or aggravated the cardiac arrest. And that is what you need to show to win a case. The job duties don’t have to be the only factor or even the main one. They just have to play a role.
The Illinois Appellate Court agreed with the family and noted that clearing snow is a heavy physical activity and that the employer benefited from it. They went on to note that the difficulty breathing happened right after the shoveling began which would certainly correlate to those two things being related.
And of course you don’t have to die to bring a case. There have been plenty of cases for workers who had a heart attack and returned to work. You do get your bills paid, your time off paid and a settlement though if you can prove your injuries were in part caused by your job.
If you do have a heart attack, you can expect that your case will likely go to trial as insurance companies fight these cases very regularly. As a result it’s important to get an attorney who has a track record of trying and winning cases. If you’d like our help in being connected with that type of attorney, call us for free any time for a review of your case.
