North Carolina: Auto Parts Employee Awarded Extensive TTD Benefits for PTSD Following Robbery

A North Carolina appellate court affirmed an award of continuing TTD benefits to a salesperson and driver for an auto parts store who complained of chest pains and a throbbing headache following an armed robbery at the employer’s store, but was nevertheless required to work the remainder of his shift. The employee, who did not thereafter return to work, sought medical care and was treated for various symptoms, including acute anxiety, stress, and blood pressure elevation. Two medical experts indicated that the robbery was an acute event and was the main cause of the employee’s acute anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The appellate court noted that the physicians had not relied merely upon a temporal link between the event and the employee’s symptoms. The physicians gave broad testimony and did not waiver in any meaningful way. It was for the Commission to assess the evidence and make factual findings. It had done so.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis 

See Pickett v. Advance Auto Parts, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 127 (Feb. 2, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 56.04 

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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