A customer service operator in Pennsylvania who claimed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after being forced to stay at her desk to answer phones during repeated bomb threats to her office lost her appeal with the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board for a full continuation of workers comp benefits after her employer’s doctor testified that a panic disorder and depression existed before the incident, according to the ruling issued Wednesday.

The employee was working for Duquesne Light Co. when in 1996 someone began calling in bomb threats, according to court records, which chronicle the series of events:

“In September 1996, there was a bomb threat in the workplace. While others evacuated the building, Claimant's supervisor ordered her to stay and answer incoming calls. After a second bomb threat occurred a month later, Claimant developed symptoms including hair loss and sleeplessness. She was afraid to continue working in the building where the bomb threats occurred. Claimant later returned to work for Employer in a janitorial position in a different building. However, she left that job because of physical problems unrelated to the 1996 bomb threats.”

A year later, the employee filed a claim seeking workers compensation medical benefits related to the 1996 bomb threats. In 1999, a judge found she sustained three separate mental injuries because of abnormal working conditions created by the 1996 bomb threats: post-traumatic stress disorder; major depressive disorder; and panic disorder. The board affirmed the decision and awarded medical benefits for these three injuries, according to court documents.

In August 2011, her employer filed a petition to terminate her benefits, alleging Ms. Vassar-Watts had fully recovered from her work-related injuries, and including in their petition expert medical testimony that found her continued suffering was found to be unrelated to the bomb threats, according to records.

A three-judge judge with the Workers Compensation Appeal Board on Wednesday affirmed the termination of her medical benefits related to treatment of PTSD and major depressive disorder but reversed the order to terminate “medical benefits related to ongoing treatment, if any, of panic disorder,” according to the ruling.

Duquesne Light could not be reached for comment.

The case is No. 1057 C.D. 2017 in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.