The claimant injured his left knee in 2005, carrying a steel beam at work and required two surgeries. Dr. Lusardi repaired the left medial meniscus and noted a torn posterior cruciate ligament and torn anterior cruciate ligament in the first surgery. See Exhibit C, 4/11/06 office note. Some months later Dr. Nogalski performed a left ACL reconstruction using a quadruple left hamstring graft. The post-operative diagnosis was "torn anterior cruciate ligament, left knee, partial PCL tear, and chondromalacia." See Exhibit C, op. note. After convalescence, the claimant continued to experience pain, weakness, and walked with a limp. He took ibuprofen, lifted less weight, and sought more assistance from co-workers. He avoided kneeling and was slower and more careful on ladders. Sitting for a long time made the knee stiff and sore. He settled his workers' compensation claim with his employer on the basis of a 20 % permanent partial disability to his left knee. See Exhibit D.
The claimant testified that he is 57 years old, is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and weighs 180 pounds. He finished high school and can read, write and do basic math. During high school, at about 16 years of age, he began training as a carpenter as part of a high school work-study program. For the next 40 years he worked as a framing carpenter building houses. Before his final injury, he had no plans to retire until he was 62 years old. During his 18 years with this employer, the claimant was sometimes a "working foreman," but that required him to do the regular duties of a framing carpenter plus the additional duties of supervising 3 or 4 workers. He never used a computer and did minimal paperwork, i.e., he sometimes filled out time sheets. As a framing carpenter the claimant did extensive bending, twisting and lifting, up to a hundred pounds or more when raising walls, carrying I-beams, headers or other lumber. He was on his feet all day, and a third of his work was overhead. Part of each workday required him to kneel. He used hand tools, saws, drills, nail guns, staplers, and other tools.
The claimant testified that after the two left knee surgeries he had to rely more on his right leg to do his work. For instance, he would put more weight on it to advance up a ladder. The claimant testified that after injuring the right leg he lost the ability to rely on the opposite leg and that he is now worse overall. He testified that his daily activities are limited. He spends some four hours each day in a recliner, which allows him to elevate his knees. He watches television and does some reading. His yard is about $1 / 4$ acre and he mows it with a self-propelled mower. He owns a treadmill and can walk about a mile before he has to stop. This takes him about 25 minutes, a rate of just over 2 miles per hour. He occasionally fishes or hunts, but he
cannot hunt quail any longer because of the amount of walking involved. He has climbed the six or seven rungs to get into a deer stand, but doing so was arduous.
The claimant testified that he would not now be able to work his former jobs. He can no longer do the required standing, squatting, kneeling, twisting, and lifting. He has looked for other jobs, and produced a partial list of his efforts. See Exhibit I. He also checked the local newspaper for job openings, but has not been able to find work that he can do. The claimant testified that he was quite familiar with the home construction industry from the point of view of a frame carpenter, having worked as one for some 40 years. The claimant testified that there are no purely supervisory jobs and that even foremen must pull their own weight.
David T. Volarich
Dr. Volarich examined the claimant on November 29, 2011, and reviewed his medical chart. He opined that the claimant suffered a 50\% permanent partial disability to the right knee and a 35 % pre-existing permanent partial disability to the left knee. He testified to synergy between the two injuries. See Dr.