ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
WENDELL L. GRIFFEN, JUDGE
DIVISION II
CA06-135
September 20, 2006
AREA AGENCY ON AGING
AN APPEAL FROM ARKANSAS
RISK MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
SECOND INJURY FUND
COMMISSION [F210164]
APPELLANTS
V.
PHILLIP ROGERS
APPELLEE
AFFIRMED
Area Agency on Aging and its carrier, Risk Management Resources, appeal from a
decision of the Workers’ Compensation Commission, which determined that Phillip Rogers
was entitled to additional medical treatment for an admittedly compensable back injury.
They argue that the Commission’s finding that appellee’s most recent treatment was
reasonable and necessary for the treatment of his compensable injury is not supported by
substantial evidence. We affirm.
Appellee suffered a compensable injury on August 29, 2002, while working for the
Area Agency on Aging. He was helping a client walk from the van to her patio when the
client slipped. Appellee caught her and heard a pop in his back. At the hearing before the
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), he testified that he felt immediate pain and had never
previously suffered from that type of pain in his life. Appellee presented to the Scott County
Medical Clinic, where Dr. Nathan Bennett assessed him with low-back strain. Dr. Bennett
prescribed medication and recommended that appellee rest and apply heat to his back.
Because of differences in the way some doctors count vertebras, certain medical
1
reports referred to the compression fractures as being at T12-L1, where others refer to
them being at L1-2.
2
Appellee returned to Dr. Bennett on September 5, 2002, where he was diagnosed with a
compression fracture at T12. Appellee was referred to orthopaedic surgeon Claude
Martimbeau, who ordered an MRI. His impression was of a mild anterior wedge
compression deformity at L1, a small disc protrusion at L5-S1, disc bulging at L4-5 and L3-
4, and a small synovial cyst on the left at L2-3. A bone scan on October 30, 2002, showed
a compound f