The claimant was 73 years old at the time of the hearing, and she would have been 70 years old at the time of her primary injury on November 9, 2007, as her date of birth was 11/20/36. The claimant is a high school graduate and had one year of training in the 1960s to become a licensed practical nurse. She also attended truck driving school in the 1970s and received a commercial driver's license following completion of that course.
From approximately 1960 to 1975, she worked as a licensed practical nurse, which required her to lift and turn patients and administer medications and other forms of medical treatment. From approximately 1976 to 1990, claimant was a tractor trailer driver, and she would haul produce from Texas to Chicago for F \& S Produce out of McAllen, Texas.
The claimant testified that in approximately 1990, she returned to the St. Louis area to take care of her mother, who was ill. She testified that she took care of her mother from 1990 until 1995, when she died. During the time period from 1990 to 1995, she worked a part-time job at Winfield Elementary School, where she would work four hours a day, three days a week giving computer training to young children. The claimant testified that since 1990, all of the jobs she had worked at since that time were part-time jobs. The claimant testified that from approximately 1997 to 1999, she worked at the Holiday Inn in St. Peters, where she would work in banquet set up. She indicated that she would only work when there would be a special event, such as a wedding, a party, etc. In approximately 2000, she moved to Minnesota, where her new husband lived. During their two year marriage, they would spend their winters in Arizona, and during the time they spent in Arizona, she worked part-time as a cashier at a Dollar Tree store.
After her divorce in approximately 2002, the claimant moved back to the St. Louis area from Minnesota, and she began working for the employer in this case, Extended Stay of America in St. Peters. This was also a part-time job, and she was the night clerk on weekends working from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday nights, for a total of 16 hours a week. She indicated that she would occasionally work on weeknights in the same position covering for the weeknight employee who held the same job. The claimant testified with respect to her job duties with the employer and also introduced into evidence Employee's Exhibit B, which was a list of those job duties set out by the employer. The claimant's primary duties were doing the laundry and stocking linen closets with the clean laundry produced by the housekeepers in the morning. In addition, claimant was required to do a lot of dishes, since this was an extended stay hotel with a kitchen in each room. Finally, the job description required the claimant to walk the premises and make sure all doors were locked and make sure all safety devices were working and make sure that everything on the premises was in order during the night. In addition, she was required to check in any late night arrivals at the hotel, although she indicated that there were not usually that many people arriving during her work hours.
The claimant was questioned concerning any medical problems she had prior to her on the job injury on November 9, 2007. She indicated that in 1975, after a work injury, she had low back surgery in St. Louis. She testified at trial, and the medical records corroborate that after a period of recovery, that she did very well with respect to her low back, and she never had pain radiating down either leg after that surgery.
In October of 2006, the claimant sustained a fall while shopping at Wal-Mart and she sustained a right hip fracture that required surgery. Following that fall, she had continuous pain in both her right hip and her low back, mainly on the right side. The claimant testified that she was not taking any pain medication, like Vicodin, before October of 2006, but after her fall while working in October of 2006, she was taking Vicodin on a regular basis up until her fall on November 9, 2007.
The claimant admitted to going to see her primary doctor, Dr. Meyerson, in June of 2007, five months before her primary injury and asked him for a cane to use because of right leg pain, and she also noted that she saw Dr. Meyerson in September of 2007 with right hip and leg pain and told the doctor that she was falling and having trouble getting up, and she had an injection in her right hip on that occasion.
The claimant testified that at the time of her fall in October of 2006 up until the injury on November 9, 2007, she had pain in her low back and right hip and her right leg was weak and it felt like it would give way, and on occasi