A Virginia police officer has been denied workers’ compensation benefits for a heart condition despite the state law that his condition is presumed to be work-related.
The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (VWCC) has ruled that the officer’s public university employer, Old Dominion University, successfully rebutted the statutory presumption with evidence that the officer was born with the disease and thus it was outside the course of his employment.
As a result, John Thomson has been denied medical benefits and temporary total disability for his atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT).
On an appeal by Old Dominion,