Am I entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if my work didn’t cause my condition but, it aggravated or made my condition worse?

Yes! An aggravation of a pre-existing condition is treated the same as a new injury under the Pa WC Act. In other words, whether your injury is new, such as a fall causing a fracture of your wrist or, is an aggravation of a pre-existing condition, like arthritis in your wrist that wasn’t causing any problems until you fell at work, both scenarios are considered compensable work injuries under the Act. The Pa WC Act follows the long-standing principal of law of the “ eggshell plaintiff.” This means that you take the plaintiff or injured worker as they were immediately before their accident and, if the accident worsened the condition that they had before the accident, that worsening is attributable to the accident.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not entitled to workers’ compensation benefits because you had a condition before the work injury if the work injury made that condition worse. You’re entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if your work or, an incident/accident at work made a prior physical or mental condition worse.