- Chance event
- Hemorrhage (subarachnoid)
- Presumptions (entitlement)
A caretaker suffered a sudden onset of headache, nausea and numbness while lifting garbage cans. She was diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage. The worker appealed a decision of the Appeals Resolution Officer denying entitlement for the subarachnoid hemorrhage.
A chance event has come to be interpreted as a discrete event associated with an immediate onset of symptoms, even if the event involved the performance of a worker's regular duties. The circumstances of this case meet the definition of a chance event. Accordingly, the presumption in s. 13 of the WSIA applies that the accident arose out of employment, unless rebutted.Medical evidence indicated that there are two possible ways for a subarachnoid hemorrhage to be work-related: a sudden rise in the worker's blood pressure or a ruptured aneurysm resulted from such a rise in blood pressure; an injury to the vertebral artery causing the layers of the artery to separate. Neither of those work-related mechanisms was present in this case.The presumption that the accident arose out of employment was rebutted. The worker did not have entitlement for the subarachnoid hemorrhage.The appeal was dismissed.