A manager at a senior living facility contacted Ankin Law when her employer would not treat her fairly after she was struck by a resident with a walker. She was introduced to Scott Goldstein and he worked closely with the injured manager to get her the favorable workers’ compensation she deserved.
The case went to arbitration and Scott was able to prevail on the arbitrator to award her:
- Temporary Total Disability benefits of $373.33/week for 86 weeks
- Her employer, Sunrise Senior Living will pay all reasonable and necessary medical services rendered in the amount of $147,984.38
- Sunrise Senior Living will provide prospective care that has been recommended but not yet completed. This includes medical, surgical, and hospital services reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury
[See the full Arbitrator Decision here]
The injured worker was employed by Sunrise Senior Living as a care manager, where her duties included assisting residents with meals, seating, and daily care. On December 8, 2024, while performing her job duties, she intervened to prevent a male resident from inappropriately touching another female resident. The male resident, who used a walker, became aggressive, struck her, and caused her to fall over a couch and onto the floor, landing on her right side. While she was down, the resident attempted to strike her again with his walker. The injured manager immediately experienced pain in her neck, back, and right shoulder and sought emergency treatment at the hospital that same day. She subsequently began treatment with an orthopedic clinic, where diagnostic imaging revealed a partial-thickness right rotator cuff tear and cervical and lumbar degenerative disc disease with foraminal narrowing. Her treatment included orthopedic and spine evaluations, a lumbar epidural steroid injection, and ultimately right shoulder surgery on May 12, 2025, consisting of rotator cuff repair, subacromial decompression, and debridement.
Despite the first surgery and 29 physical therapy sessions between June and September 2025, the injured senior living manager continued experiencing significant right shoulder pain and developed adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). Her doctor recommended a second surgery to address this condition, which she ultimately underwent nine days before the arbitration hearing. Between the two surgeries, she rated her shoulder pain at approximately 7/10 and required oxycodone for relief. At the time of the hearing, she reported pain of approximately 6/10 but acknowledged improvement following the second surgery, including the ability to raise her right arm to shoulder height, which she had been unable to do previously. She remains off work and under her doctor’s care, continuing supervised home physical therapy three times per week and daily exercises, with another follow-up appointment scheduled in approximately one month.
The injured woman continues to experience daily neck and back symptoms that began following the December 8, 2024 work accident. She testified that she had no prior neck or back complaints and had never sought treatment for either condition before the accident. Although these symptoms persist, her current treatment is focused on her right shoulder because her physicians want to address one body part at a time. Sunrise Senior Living obtained two Section 12 independent medical examinations: One doctor evaluated her right shoulder on April 28, 2026, and another doctor evaluated her lumbar spine in a report dated April 27, 2026.
Notably, Sunrise Senior Living’s own shoulder examiner documented an accident history consistent with the injured woman’s testimony and concluded that her right shoulder condition was directly caused by the December 8, 2024 work accident and that the treatment received was reasonable, necessary, and causally related. However, he opined that she reached maximum medical improvement as of approximately November 12, 2025, with no further intervention necessary. The other doctor hired by Sunrise Senior Living similarly disputed causation for her lumbar condition. Her treating physicians disagree with both opinions concluding that her current shoulder condition was more likely than not causally related to the work injury, while another doctor opined, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that her lumbar condition was aggravated by the work accident.
In the end the Arbitrator ruled in favor of the the injured Sunrise Senior Living manager on all major disputed issues:
- Her current condition of ill-being in her right shoulder, neck, and back is causally related to her December 8, 2024 work accident.
- Her treatment to date has been reasonable and necessary, and Sunrise Senior Living has not paid all appropriate charges.
- She is awarded prospective medical care. Sunrise Senior Living is obligated to provide the medical, surgical, and hospital services reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury, and this obligation includes her prospective care that has been recommended but not yet completed.
- She is entitled to temporary total disability benefits from December 20, 2024 through the August 13, 2026 hearing date, a period of 86 weeks.
