The claimant was working as a construction foreman when he sustained a work-related injury in October of 2024. He had fallen after stepping on asphalt, hitting a knee against a cast iron pipe.

The claimant suffered a left quadriceps tendon rupture and a patellar tendon fracture, resulting in surgery a week after the accident. Roughly seven weeks after surgery, the claimant developed a massive pulmonary embolism as a complication, causing terminal lung collapse. He died at home shortly thereafter in December of 2024.

While the insurance carrier accepted compensability for the original injury, they denied the causal relationship of the claimant’s death to the original accident.

Stephen Harper talked to the medical examiner and hired an expert to opine that the deep tissue injury, surgery and immobilization from the original injury led to the development of deep vein thrombosis (blood clot). This clot passed through the decedent’s heart, became lodged in the vessels of his lung, and created the pulmonary collapse which led to his death.

Through mediation, attorney Stephen Harper was able to secure $400,000 in death benefits for the claimant’s beneficiary.