JCC Denies Paramedic's Stroke Claim After Heavy Patient Lift

The claimant, a paramedic, alleged that lifting a roughly 300-pound patient and stretcher on February 3, 2026, caused an intracranial hemorrhage and stroke discovered the next morning. He sought compensability, temporary disability benefits, and payment for hospital and follow-up medical care.

The JCC credited the employer/carrier independent medical examiner, who explained that a lift-related intracranial hemorrhage would have produced immediate neurological symptoms. The claimant instead drove back to the station, cooked and ate dinner, and showed no observed dysfunction until he was found unresponsive the following morning; the accepted medical evidence identified hypertension, diabetes, and preexisting hypertensive cerebrovascular disease as the cause.

Because the work lift was not the major contributing cause of the hemorrhage or stroke, the JCC denied compensability and the related temporary disability, medical, attorney-fee, and cost claims. The order reserved jurisdiction over later petitions that were not ripe at the final hearing.

Source: Compensation Order