Pennsylvania appeals court says firefighter’s PTSD compensable

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on Wednesday granted workers compensation benefits to a firefighter who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after having to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on two infants who died in his care.

In reversing a state Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board’s ruling that an Upper Darby Township firefighter’s mental condition was not compensable, as both the board and a judge said providing CPR is not an abnormal working condition for a first responder, the latest ruling relied on witness testimony from doctors and other career firefighters that witnessing two infants die within 16 months is considered “rare,” as documented in No. 770 C.D. 2024.

The firefighter had performed CPR on adults in the past but never on infants. The first incident, in which a two-week old infant stopped breathing, took place in 2018. Following the second incident in 2021, in which a nine-month-old infant was brought to the fire station and could not be resuscitated, the firefighter “experienced mental issues including anxiety, depression, anger, PTSD, loss of appetite and sleep, and nightmares” and stopped working as a firefighter “because of these symptoms.”

The commonwealth court wrote that under an “abnormal working condition analysis as applied in this case, Claimant established an ‘abnormal working condition’ by the compounded tragedy of twice having to attempt to resuscitate and witness the deaths of infant children within a 16-month timespan.”

The court also said that newly enacted state law “specifically addresses claims for post-traumatic stress injuries suffered by first responders and provides a claim for a PTSD injury suffered by a first responder who undergoes a qualifying traumatic event sustained in the course and scope of his employment as a first responder and, notably, indicates the injury ‘shall not be required to be the result of an abnormal working condition to be a compensable injury.’”