A nurse who injured her knee while helping lift a patient but failed to immediately report her injury is eligible for workers compensation benefits, an appeals court in Arkansas ruled Wednesday.

Melissa Herring had worked as a licensed practical nurse for the Fulton County Hospital for almost 10 years when in mid-May 2017, while working a 12-hour day shift as the only nurse on the floor when the hospital usually staffed two, she “felt a pop” in her knee while holding up a patient who would have collapsed, according to documents in Fulton Risk Management Services v. Melissa j. Herring, filed in the Court of Appeals of Arkansas, Division I in Little Rock.

“Although she felt a tightening on the inside of her knee, she did not report an injury and continued her shift for the next one and a half hours,” documents state. Ms. Herring testified that she “began icing her knee that night for thirty minutes every two hours and kept it elevated, thinking that it would resolve itself” and that all supervisors had left for the day so she could not report the incident.

When she finally told a supervisor “five days after it occurred” she was told it was “too late” to report it, documents state.

Pain increased and she finally went to see a doctor, which led to an MRI in early June 2017 that showed an injury, according to documents. The hospital argued that the injury was not related to her work, according to documents, and that a “nurse practitioner diagnosed her with degenerative joint disease” on at least one visit.

The administrative law judge later denied Ms. Herring benefits, “finding she failed to satisfy her burden of proving that a work-related injury arising from her employment was the cause of her left-knee injury.” The state Workers’ Compensation Commission reversed, finding Ms. Herring “proved by a preponderance of the evidence she sustained a compensable left-knee injury.”

Citing that the state courts have long recognized injuries as work-related “based on evidence that the injury manifested itself within a reasonable period of time following the incident… where there is no other reasonable explanation for the injury,” the commission wrote that “(g)iven the closeness in proximity of the time between the work accident and the complaint of left knee swelling and pain, the Full Commission finds that the claimant's injury was caused by her workplace accident.”

The hospital continued on appeal, arguing “that the claimant failed to prove that her left knee injury arose out of her employment, noting an alleged delay in reporting the workplace incident.”

Regarding the delay, Mrs. Herring explained in testimony that “although it was standard procedure for each floor of the facility to be staffed with two nurses at a time, on the day the claimant's accident occurred, she was the only nurse on the floor. The claimant testified further that when the needs of the residents are demanding, there isn't time to do anything other than care for the residents.” She added that the injury occurred after normal business hours and that all supervisors had left for the day.

The appellate court ruled unanimously, writing that it found Ms. Herring's testimony “credible as to how her injury occurred” and that “(t)here is substantial evidence to support the Commission's award of benefits.”