$51k lump sum settlement of 19% whole person person impairment

Our client was working as a registered nurse at a mental health facility at the time of the injuries, aged 56. 

While assisting a patient in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs, as the lift were not operational, the patient got scared and leant forward. This caused our client to go in a forward and back position, falling and taking the weight of the patient. 

This resulted in our client injuring her back, suffering immediate pain to her right shoulder and a burning sensation in her back. 

Approximately 5 months after her first injury, she suffered from a flare up aggravation injury when she tried to work through another shift. She found that she was in too much pain at work. As a result of this second injury, our client’s employer organised a work injury incident form for the insurer. 

Following these two injuries our client was informed that she will not be able to work as a nurse ever again. 

Our client suffered injuries to her back, left leg, right leg, neck and her right arm as a result of her two injuries. More specifically, our client had injured her lumbar spine with a large disc prolapse at L3/4 level associated with radiculopathy. She suffered an injury to her cervical spine causing musculoligamentous, facet joint and disc trauma at C4/5 and C5/ levels causing radicular symptoms in the right arm. She had to have surgery to the lumbar spine with partial L2 and open L3/4 laminectomy and L3/4 discectomy. She also suffers from recurrent disc protrusion at L3/4 following surgery and chronic pain syndrome. 

Our client accepted a lump sum settlement of 19% whole person person impairment (WPI) from the insurer in the amount of $51,246.05 inclusive of a 5% uplift for lumbar spine only, in accordance with the medical report that was provided by the insurer’s IME.