If an employee is in good health prior to an accidental injury, but disabling symptoms manifest after the accident, then there is a presumption that the injury is work-related. Notably, for an injury covered under this provision of the statute, the worker is afforded a presumption of causation.
The statute also broadly defines 'injury' as those injuries 'by violence to the physical structure of the body and such disease or infections as naturally result therefrom.' This provision of the statute specifically excludes degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, arthritis, mental illness, and heart-related or perivascular disease. The worker does not need to prove that such an event was extraordinary or unusual, but the worker does need to identify what the actual event was that led to injury. Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:1021 defines an 'accident' as an unexpected or unforeseen actual, identifiable, precipitous event happening suddenly or violently, directly producing an injury. The definition of an accident under Louisiana law is fairly broad.
