Southern Cross Care has lodged an appeal against a medical assessment (Miramar Mills) issued by the NSW Workers Compensation Commission. Miramar Mills was employed as an assistant in nursing at a nursing home at Merrylands. Her duties included repetitive frequent prolonged abnormal movement patterns including flexion, extension, lateral bending and axial rotation, lifting, carrying and placing residents, stooping, pushing, pulling and forward reaching. Conservative treatment was unsuccessful and the claimant developed symptoms in her right arm, particularly pins and needles and tingling. She came to surgery with Dr van Gelder on 6 June 2012. Dr van Gelder performed a right sided cervical foraminotomy at C5/6, C6/7 and C7/T1 with a right foraminal discectomy at C6/T1. The claimant continues to experience numbness in the medial aspect of the right forearm and in her right middle finger. The approved medical specialist (AMS) found that there was a 22 per cent WPI in relation to the injury to the cervical spine and nil per cent scarring. This has now been reduced to 19 per cent as a result of the appeal.
