A consequential injury is something that happens as a result of an accepted injury. Without an injury occurring in the first place, this new condition would not exist. A common example of consequential injuries is a person with a knee injury who limps during walking. The limping can result in pain in the other leg. If the person never had the original knee injury, the limping would never have occurred which lead to the other leg having pain. This is a consequential injury.
Another example of a consequential injury is when a person is in an arm sling as a result of a shoulder injury. They have to use their other unaffected arm more than usual and that leads to a shoulder injury in the opposite arm. Without the original shoulder injury, the sling would have never been necessary, and the other arm would not have been over-used.
Any condition that occurs only as a result of another injury already being present is considered a consequential injury. The narrative report required to get the consequential condition accepted requires the same level of extraordinary detail as in an initial narrative report, but with the addition of great detail about the circumstances leading to the new consequential condition.
Federal employees need help from expert, trained, and compliant doctors and staff who understand their unique needs, concerns, and struggles after they’re hurt at work. Work injuries may be inevitable, but losing is not. We have the power to help them. Federal employees make this country go. When they break, we have to fix them.