The East­ern Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (ER­HA) has agreed to pay $150,000 in ad­di­tion­al com­pen­sa­tion to a for­mer con­tract work­er who suf­fered an on-the-job in­jury.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the au­thor­i­ty agreed to make the pay­ment as an ap­peal brought by Judy Ar­joon­s­ingh was set to be con­sid­ered by Ap­pel­late Judges Vasheist Kokaram, Car­la Brown-An­toine, and Eleanor Don­ald­son-Hon­ey­well on Mon­day.

Based on the con­sent or­der put for­ward by the par­ties last week, the hear­ing was va­cat­ed and the ap­peal with­drawn.

Ar­joon­s­ingh, through her lawyers Yaseen Ahmed and Tara Lutch­man, sued the ER­HA for neg­li­gence af­ter she hit her head on the edge of a met­al box while work­ing at one of the au­thor­i­ty’s health cen­tres.

She claimed that she suf­fered from a se­ries of de­bil­i­tat­ing symp­toms and de­vel­oped post-con­cus­sion syn­drome and post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der (PTSD).

Ar­joon­s­ingh com­plet­ed her con­tract with the ER­HA in 2017 but claimed to have con­tin­ued to ex­pe­ri­ence med­ical is­sues based on the in­jury.

In Ju­ly 2023, High Court Mas­ter Sher­lanne Pierre or­dered a lit­tle over $80,000 in com­pen­sa­tion af­ter Ar­joon­s­ingh’s law­suit was up­held by a judge af­ter a tri­al.

The ma­jor­i­ty of the com­pen­sa­tion was for the trau­ma Ar­joon­s­ingh en­dured, but she al­so was re­im­bursed for her med­ical fees.

“Hav­ing re­gard to the mul­ti­plic­i­ty and in­ten­si­ty of the symp­toms in this case, the court was of the view that a rea­son­able award would be the sum of $50,000,” Mas­ter Pierre said.

She al­so found that Ar­joon­s­ingh was not en­ti­tled to com­pen­sa­tion for loss of earn­ings, as she was paid for the du­ra­tion of her con­tract.

The ER­HA was rep­re­sent­ed by Justin Phelps, SC. —Derek Achong