The Short Answer
Whether a heart attack at work is covered by workers' compensation in North Carolina depends on what caused it. If the heart attack happened during your normal, routine job duties, it likely is not compensable. However, if it was triggered by an unusual or unexpected event outside your normal work activities — and there's a clear causal connection between that event and the heart attack — it should be covered. A preexisting heart condition does not disqualify you, because under NC law, the employer takes the employee as they find them.
Like many areas in the law, it depends. If the heart attack occurred during your normal work activities, usually the heart attack injury is not compensable under North Carolina workers’ compensation laws. For the injury to be compensable, the worker must show the heart attack was caused by some unusual or unexpected event and was in the course and scope of employment.
A good example would be an administrative assistant, who had a “desk job,” was on the first floor of a fifteen-story building. Due to a power outage, the elevators were temporarily not working. The worker’s supervisor told the worker to quickly go to the twelfth floor, via the stairs, to pick up some important documents. As the worker was going up the stairs she began to breath hard and over exerted herself. As the worker reached the tenth floor, she began to have chest pain and suffered a heart attack. This is a compensable act because this was not the normal routine of the administrative assistant to run up twelve flights of stairs. Her normal job was to have a sedimentary job at her desk. She suffered a heart attack due to this “unusual event” of her running up ten flights of stairs. This injury should be covered under the workers compensation laws.
What if the employer knew the administrative assistant had a preexisting heart condition? This would be irrelevant. The heart attack would still be compensable because the employer “takes the employee as they find them.”
What if a convenience store employee had a heart attack as an armed robber came into the store with a shotgun and pointed the shotgun at the clerk? This would probably be compensable injury because it is not the “normal duties” of a convenience store clerk to have a shotgun pointed at them.
What if a store clerk was checking out a customer and the clerk had a heart attack? Would this be compensable under the workers compensation laws? Probably not, because the clerk was doing his “normal and customary duties ” when he suffered the heart attack. Nothing out of the ordinary caused the clerk to have the heart attack.
The bottom line is, there must be some act or accident outside of the normal course of employment that caused the heart attack. There must be a causal connection between this act and the resulting heart attack. If you are looking for a Charlotte workers’ compensation attorney or Greensboro workers’ compensation lawyer be sure to contact us today.
Key Takeaways
- North Carolina workers' comp covers a work-related heart attack only when it is caused by an unusual or unexpected event, not routine job duties.
- There must be a direct causal connection between the triggering event and the heart attack — "I was at work" alone is not enough.
- A preexisting heart condition does not bar your claim; if an unusual work event caused the heart attack, your employer cannot use your medical history against you.
- Examples of compensable situations include being ordered to sprint up multiple flights of stairs or having a weapon pointed at you during a robbery — neither is a normal job duty.
- A clerk suffering a heart attack while simply checking out a customer would likely not have a compensable claim because nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
- If you believe an unusual work event caused your heart attack, contact a North Carolina workers' compensation attorney promptly to protect your right to benefits.
