The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a teacher’s claim for benefits for his methicillin-resistant staph infection, which he contracted in a wound he suffered while on a school-sponsored camping trip.
Peter Southworth was working for Proctor Academy as an English teacher in September 2015 when he was a faculty supervisor for a multiday school camping trip. When returning from the trip, Mr. Southworth noticed an area on his leg that appeared to be inflamed or cut. Lab cultures collected from his right thigh lesion later confirmed the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, according to re Appeal of Southworth, No. 2022-0544, which is unpublished.
Mr. Southworth’s condition worsened despite treatment. In October 2015, he collapsed and went into a coma. He spent a month in the hospital undergoing several surgeries to drain an epidural abscess that extended from his cervical spine to his lumbar area.
He later filed a workers compensation claim and the Department of Labor found he was entitled to benefits. The Compensation Appeals Board reversed and denied the claim, noting that there was expert medical testimony that MRSA is often community-acquired and that it is impossible to determine whether Mr. Southworth contracted his infection at work.
The state’s highest court reversed, stating that it is “well-established that an employer remains liable for subsequent injuries that are the ‘direct and natural result’ of a prior, work-related injury.”
Since it was undisputed that Mr. Southworth suffered a work-related injury to his thigh, the court said, it was not necessarily his burden to prove that he “actually contracted MRSA at work.” The court said it remains to be determined whether the MRSA infection was a direct and natural result of the injury Southworth sustained on the camping trip.
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