132 A. 122 | Pa. | 1926
On January 25, 1923, while George R. Jones, the deceased, and his father were in the course of their employment for defendant, near Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, the father was buried by the slide of a culm bank. A desperate effort to rescue him was made by the deceased and other employees, lasting about two and a half hours, when the father's lifeless body was recovered. A large quantity of water was used in the rescue work and the deceased was drenched from his knees down. Following the exposure, excitement and exertion, he had a severe cold, but attended the funeral of his father, January 29th, and, returning home, went to bed and called a doctor the same day, who testified that the deceased then had, "chills, fever, sweating, pains all over the body and head and some cough; some congestion there in the chest, with a cough of course; catarrhal symptoms like you get from grippe," and that his condition then was a catarrhal one that might pass into pneumonia. The evidence seems to indicate that the patient got some temporary relief, at least, that doctor did not call again, but about February 7th, other physicians *319 were summoned who found the patient suffering from pneumonia, with which in their judgment he had been afflicted for several days, and which caused his death, February 11th, seventeen days after the exposure. The first award of the referee in favor of claimant, as his widow, was affirmed by the compensation board, but reversed by the court of common pleas for lack of sufficient medical evidence connecting the pneumonia with the exposure, and the case was sent back to the compensation board for further hearing. Additional testimony was taken and a second award made in favor of claimant, which, being affirmed by the court of common pleas, resulted in this appeal by defendant.
The proofs sustain the award. The medical evidence is that the sickness with which the deceased was suffering on the afternoon of the funeral was not the result of exposure on that day, but had been some days in developing, about as it would be if resulting from the exposure, etc., suffered four days previously. Dr. D. W. Collins, of Wilkes-Barre, a specialist in internal diseases, not called at the first hearing, on a consideration of all the facts, testified: "I think the wetting was the cause of his trouble which eventually terminated in pneumonia and caused his death," and further: "Pneumonia was the condition resulting from fever and chills operating for several days." The conclusion of an expert, given as, "I think," is equivalent to saying, "I believe." and amounts to an assertion of his professional opinion, at least as strong as the assertion of his opinion that, under all the attending data, the result in question most probably came from the assigned cause, which is sufficient: Fink v. Sheldon Axle
Spring Co.,
The judgment is affirmed.