Updated Nov 12, 2013; Posted Nov 12, 2013
Members of the Morris County Park Police mounted unit patrol Loantaka Brook Reservation in Morris Township.
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By Ben Horowitz | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
— A state appeals court today upheld a finding that a Morris County Park Police officer suffers from work-related Lyme disease and is entitled to temporary disability and medical benefits along with an oxygen treatment.
Margie Raimondi said she contracted the disease during horseback patrols of wooded areas frequented by deer, according to the appeals decision. The county park commission had appealed the payments ordered by a worker’s compensation court, arguing there was no conclusive evidence Raimondi has Lyme disease.
The commission did acknowledge in a separate claim that Raimondi suffered “compensable” injuries when she fell during an on-the-job accident in 2011. Raimondi’s physician said that incident “aggravated” her Lyme disease symptoms which were first diagnosed in 2006. Raimondi began working as a park police officer in September 2005 and said she was exposed to tick bites “many times,” according to the decision.
However, she could not recall any specific dates and times when she was bitten, the decision said. Late in 2006, Raimondi began to experience chronic fatigue, pain in her muscles and joints, and stiffness in her neck, among other things. According to a blood test, Raimondi suffered from Lyme disease as of August 2006, the decision said. Raimondi left the job on sick leave but returned to clerical and administrative work in 2008, and then went back to mounted patrols in April 2010.
However, in March 2011, Raimondi fell on a patch of black ice while clearing snow off a patrol car, and landed on her hands and knees. She returned to work, but her condition worsened, the decision said. She experienced pain, primarily in her neck, upper back and spine, and later suffered severe spasms, according to the decision.
Raimondi has been unable to work since May 2011, the court said. The appeals court upheld a worker’s compensation judge’s finding that Raimondi has Lyme disease, accepting her treating physician’s diagnosis, and rejected the opinion of a medical expert retained by the park commission.