Opinion
Record No. 0865-92-3
December 15, 1992
FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION.
H. Ashby Dickerson (Penn, Stuart, Eskridge, on brief), for appellant.
(Anthony E. Collins, on brief), for appellee. Appellee submitting on brief.
Present: Chief Judge Koontz, Judges Moon and Willis.
Argued at Salem, Virginia.
Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not designated publication.
We affirm the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission holding that Westmoreland Coal Company should pay for medical expenses incurred at St. Albans Hospital by Greg W. Adkins.
In the absence of fraud, the commission's findings of fact are binding upon this Court if supported by credible evidence, even if, in our opinion, the factual findings may be contrary to the weight of the evidence. See Russell Loungewear v. Gray, 2 Va. App. 90, 341 S.E.2d 824 (1986).
Adkins was diagnosed as suffering a post-traumatic stress disorder related to his industrial injury and was sent to St. Albans by an authorized physician for treatment of that condition.
Although the employer introduced substantial evidence that challenged the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, the doctors who treated Adkins at St. Albans, as authorized physicians, adhered to that diagnosis throughout Adkins' stay and treated him for such. For the reasons stated in the commission's opinion, the evidence supported a finding that an underlying psychiatric disorder was exacerbated by the post-traumatic stress disorder. But for this post-traumatic stress disorder, Adkins would not have been referred to or required to be treated at St. Albans.
The commission was not, as a matter of law, required to find that Adkins was not being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his injury.
Therefore, we affirm the award of the commission.
Affirmed.