Claimant, George Hackler, was born November 15, 1956. He left school in the eleventh grade and joined the U.S. Navy. He served in the Navy for a year, earning his GED during that time.
Claimant was employed by Employer as a book buyer for just over two years. Claimant's prior work history includes construction and manual labor jobs, nine years working in a warehouse, and several years in route sales. Immediately prior to his work for Employer, Claimant was employed for two years as a bank manager in Texas and two years as a receipt/expenditure auditor for a county clerk's office in Texas.
These cases involve work accidents with Employer on April 10, 2009, and on January 22, 2010. The 2009 accident caused injury to Claimant's cervical spine resulting in surgery. The 2010 accident allegedly caused injury to Claimant's right shoulder; Claimant had subsequent surgery on his right shoulder.
Claimant had a number of injuries prior to April 10, 2009. In 1975, Claimant suffered an open comminuted fracture of his right tibia and fibula and underwent an open reduction/internal fixation. Claimant testified that his leg was casted for over a year. In 1996, Claimant had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Dr. Volarich opined that these two prior injuries to Claimant's right lower extremity constituted a 30 % permanent partial disability of the right knee.
In December 1988, Claimant injured his low back and was eventually diagnosed with a disc herniation at L5-S1. In March of 1990, Claimant underwent surgery consisting of laminectomy, bilateral discectomy, and posterior fusion at L5-S1. He was taken back to surgery fifteen days later to remove the graft from the disc space. Claimant continued to undergo lumbar spine injections over the years prior to April 10, 2009. Dr. Volarich opined that Claimant's lumbar spine injury/condition constituted a 35 % permanent partial disability of the body as a whole.
Claimant injured his neck in September 1983 and underwent a C5-6 discectomy and fusion in December 1983. In 2005, Claimant underwent a C6-7 discectomy and fusion. Claimant has continued to undergo cervical spine injections over the years. Dr. Volarich opined that Claimant's cervical spine injury/condition constituted an additional 35 % permanent partial disability of the body as a whole.
Claimant's work for Employer as a book buyer required him to drive a van in ten states visiting college and university professors and buying books from the professors. Claimant estimated that he would drive in excess of thirty hours per week. Prior to the April 10, 2009 accident, Claimant would pack the books in large boxes, weighing as much as 100 pounds when full. Claimant packed the boxes into the van. He would take the boxes out of the van at the end of the week to have them shipped to Employer's office in Texas.
April 10, 2009, was a Friday. Claimant had returned to Missouri from his week of bookbuying and was at the Fed Ex office in Columbia to ship the boxes of books to Texas. As Claimant was lifting and moving a box of books weighing approximately 85 pounds, Claimant felt a sharp pain in his neck, causing him to drop the box. Claimant tried to work the following week in Kentucky, but the pain was too much. Claimant requested medical treatment. Employer had Claimant evaluated by Dr. Michael Chabot, a St. Louis spine surgeon. In addition to the neck symptoms, Claimant also had significant right upper extremity symptoms, and a right shoulder injury was also investigated. A disc herniation at C4-5 and cervical radiculopathy were diagnosed, and on May 13, 2009, Dr. Chabot performed a C4-5 discectomy and fusion with instrumentation from C4 to T1.
Claimant had a long but basically successful recovery from the surgery, including a significant amount of therapy. Most of Claimant's right upper extremity symptoms had resolved, but Claimant developed left shoulder and left neck pain post-surgery;