An often-encountered injury in the workers’ compensation setting is an abdominal hernia. In most instances, the employer and its counsel will attempt to downplay the significance of an abdominal hernia injury, categorizing it as a common and minor injury. The focus of this article is to dispel the notion that the majority of the time an abdominal hernia is a minor injury.
It is well established that an abdominal hernia can come from heavy lifting. Consequently, if the defense medical examiner agrees that the claimant is suffering from an abdominal hernia, the defense medical examiner will then usually agree that the injury was work-related as long as the history provided by the claimant otherwise appears consistent.
