{
  "id": 6647789,
  "name": "Forrest E. WHITE v. LAIR OIL COMPANY, FEDERATED MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, and SECOND INJURY FUND",
  "name_abbreviation": "White v. Lair Oil Co.",
  "decision_date": "1987-03-04",
  "docket_number": "CA 86-242",
  "first_page": "136",
  "last_page": "139",
  "citations": [
    {
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      "cite": "20 Ark. App. 136"
    },
    {
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      "cite": "725 S.W.2d 10"
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  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ark. Ct. App.",
    "id": 13370,
    "name": "Arkansas Court of Appeals"
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    {
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      "reporter": "Ark. App.",
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      "year": 1985,
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        "/ark-app/16/0102-01"
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    {
      "cite": "703 S.W.2d 459",
      "category": "reporters:state_regional",
      "reporter": "S.W.2d",
      "case_ids": [
        8719130,
        6649226
      ],
      "year": 1986,
      "opinion_index": 0,
      "case_paths": [
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        "/ark-app/17/0047-01"
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    {
      "cite": "17 Ark. App. 47",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark. App.",
      "case_ids": [
        6649226
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      "year": 1986,
      "opinion_index": 0,
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        "/ark-app/17/0047-01"
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  "analysis": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:16:54.687302+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Mayfield and Cooper, JJ., agree."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "Forrest E. WHITE v. LAIR OIL COMPANY, FEDERATED MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, and SECOND INJURY FUND"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Beth Gladden Coulson, Judge.\nAppellant argues a single point for reversal in this appeal from an order of the Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission. Upon our review of the record, we find error on the Commission\u2019s part, and we therefore reverse its decision.\nThe record reveals that appellant, Forrest E. White, sustained a compensable injury while working for appellee Lair Oil Company on November 17, 1983. Two chiropractors \u2014 Dr. Butler, whom appellant had selected, and Dr. Conners, whom appellee Lair Oil had selected \u2014 saw him and recommended the services of Dr. John L. K. Tsang, a neurosurgeon in Springfield, Missouri. Dr. Tsang operated on appellant in December, 1983, and March, 1984.\nIn the latter part of March, 1984, appellant suffered painful muscle spasms in his lower back and left leg. Appellant\u2019s wife testified that when she phoned Dr. Tsang for assistance, he scolded her for disturbing him at home at 8:00 p.m., despite the fact that he had instructed appellant to call him at any time should he develop complications. Failing to obtain Dr. Tsang\u2019s assistance, appellant\u2019s wife took her husband to the emergency room at the hospital in Harrison, Arkansas, where he was treated by Dr. Geoffrey Dunaway, appellant\u2019s family physician.\nOn April 19, 1984, after his release from the hospital, Dr. Dunaway referred appellant to Dr. Jorge Johnson, a neurologist in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Appellant was given an appointment for an office visit on May 1, 1984. According to Dr. Johnson\u2019s records, appellant\u2019s treatment began in June, 1984. He was hospitalized in August, 1984, and underwent surgery. Appellee carrier refused to pay Dr. Johnson\u2019s charges, contending that the referral by Dr. Dunaway was an unauthorized change of physician under Ark. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 81-1311 (Supp. 1985).\nA hearing was held on September 25, 1985, and the administrative law judge found Dr. Johnson\u2019s treatment to be reasonable and necessary under the circumstances and appellees responsible for the outstanding medical charges. The law judge held that a proper referral had been made by Dr. Dunaway, who had followed appellant through the course of his unsuccessful treatment by other physicians. The Workers\u2019 Compensation Commission, in an order filed April 10, 1986, ruled that the administrative law judge had misapplied the law. In reversing his decision, the Commission stated that the treatment appellant received from Dr. Johnson was neither authorized nor approved and that appellees bore no responsibility for Dr. Johnson\u2019s charges. From that decision, this appeal arises.\nAppellant\u2019s sole argument for reversal is that the Commission erred in finding that he did not comply with the requirements of Ark. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 81-1311 (Supp. 1985). Hecontends that his treatment by Dr. Johnson was not, properly speaking, a change of physician but was instead merely a referral by his treating physician, under whose care he remained.\nWe agree. When Dr. Tsang refused to assist appellant when emergency services were required, he effectively released his patient from his care. At that point, Dr. Dunaway stepped into Dr. Tsang\u2019s shoes and became appellant\u2019s treating physician. Because the change was not of appellant\u2019s seeking but was instead prompted by exigent circumstances, we cannot conceive that a reasonable mind could reach the conclusion that a change of physician had occurred. For all practical purposes, then, a continuum of treatment was administered to appellant under two doctors whose services could be said to have been merged as those of one.\nIn Universal Underwriters Insurance Co. v. Bussey, 17 Ark. App. 47, 703 S.W.2d 459 (1986), we declined to adopt a strict construction of the term \u201cemergency treatment\u201d that would entail only a life-threatening situation, and we upheld the award of medical expenses to a second physician who admitted the claimant to a hospital and performed surgery upon him several days later. There has been no dispute in the present case regarding whether the treatment appellant received from Dr. Dunaway could be characterized as \u201cemergency.\u201d Once it has been determined that, by virtue of the emergency, Dr. Dunaway also assumed the role of appellant\u2019s treating physician, the question then to be resolved is whether the engagement of Dr. Johnson was a change of physician or a referral.\nWe held in Electro-Air v. Villines, 16 Ark. App. 102, 697 S.W.2d 932 (1985), that a referral had indeed occurred where the evidence showed that a claimant\u2019s treating physician had referred her to a psychiatrist, despite the fact that the Commission had improperly labeled it a change of physician, and we affirmed the Commission\u2019s approval of the referral. In the present case we are confronted by an almost identical situation \u2014 a treating physician referring his patient to a specialist. Thus, the Commission was in error to rule that appellant had made a change of physician.\nWe reverse and remand this matter to the Commission for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.\nReversed and remanded.\nMayfield and Cooper, JJ., agree.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Beth Gladden Coulson, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Martin Law Firm, P.A., by: Thomas A. Martin, for appellant.",
      "Walker & Campbell Law Firm, by: Gail Inman Campbell, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Forrest E. WHITE v. LAIR OIL COMPANY, FEDERATED MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, and SECOND INJURY FUND\nCA 86-242\n725 S.W.2d 10\nCourt of Appeals of Arkansas Division II\nOpinion delivered March 4, 1987\nMartin Law Firm, P.A., by: Thomas A. Martin, for appellant.\nWalker & Campbell Law Firm, by: Gail Inman Campbell, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0136-01",
  "first_page_order": 156,
  "last_page_order": 159
}