Indiana Appeals Court Affirms Work Comp Coverage for Obesity Surgery

An Indiana appeals court has upheld the ruling of the state workers’ compensation board that an employee at a pizza restaurant is eligible for treatment for obesity under a workers’ compensation policy.

The Indiana appeals court, in Boston’s Gourmet Pizza vs. Adam Childers (No. 93A02-0902-EX-176) agreed that because Childers’ massive weight gain resulted from an injury he sustained while working at Boston’s Gourmet Pizza, he is “entitled to receive a certain secondary medical treatment and the continued payment of temporary total disability benefits.”

Childers was 25 years old and a cook at the restaurant in March 2007 when he was injured by freezer door that hit him in the back. Childers was six feet tall, weighed 340 pounds and smoked around 30 cigarettes a day, according to court documents. After the accident, Childers’ back pain increased and he underwent a number of treatments and examinations. He was found to be a candidate for spinal fusion surgery, but his weight had ballooned to 380 pounds. His doctor said the weight gain increased the risk that the back surgery would fail and recommended lap band surgery.

The restaurant objected, saying Childers’ weight was a pre-existing condition and not covered under the policy.

The appeals court found that the work related injury was partly the cause of Childers’ weight gain because he was unable to exercise. The court also said no evidence had been presented “that Childers’ weight at the time of the injury precluded successful resolution of his pain.”