JCC Denies Lightning-Injury Claim but Orders Payment of ER and Ambulance Bills

Caroline Ferguson, a reading intervention teacher at Palm Beach Maritime Academy, claimed she suffered a compensable work injury on October 6, 2025 after a nearby lightning event during morning car-line duty caused tingling, dizziness, weakness, nausea, and chest tightness. The employer/carrier denied compensability, while Ferguson argued waiver, estoppel, and spoliation and sought a treating physician, specialist referrals, and payment of her hospital and ambulance bills.

Judge Barbara K. Case rejected the employer/carrier's late attempt to add a misrepresentation defense shortly before final hearing, finding the amendment prejudicial and barred under the pretrial rules. On the merits, however, the order found the medical proof too thin to establish a compensable injury: the JFK emergency records showed subjective complaints without objective findings, the M.D. Now report and DWC-25 were found inconsistent and unreliable, and no medical opinion tied the claimed ongoing need for treatment to the work event as the major contributing cause.

The JCC therefore denied compensability and denied authorization of a treating doctor, neurology, cardiology, and ophthalmology care. Even so, because the employer called 911 and the emergency-room treatment was treated as authorized, the order still required payment of the October 6, 2025 JFK Hospital bill, the Fire Rescue transport bill, and related fees and costs tied to those authorized bills.

Source: Compensation Order