27-14-603. Burden of proof; required proof of circumstances; coronary conditions; hernia.

(a) The burden of proof in contested cases involving injuries which occur over a substantial period of time is on the employee to prove by competent medical authority that his claim arose out of and in the course of his employment and to prove by a preponderance of evidence that:

(i) There is a direct causal connection between the condition or circumstances under which the work is performed and the injury;

(ii) The injury can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work as a result of the employment;

(iii) The injury can fairly be traced to the employment as a proximate cause;

(iv) The injury does not come from a hazard to which employees would have been equally exposed outside of the employment; and

(v) The injury is incidental to the character of the business and not independent of the relation of employer and employee.

(b) Benefits for employment-related coronary conditions except those directly and solely caused by an injury, are not payable unless the employee establishes by competent medical authority that:

(i) There is a direct causal connection between the condition under which the work was performed and the cardiac condition; and

(ii) The causative exertion occurs during the actual period of employment stress clearly unusual to or abnormal for employees in that particular employment, irrespective of whether the employment stress is unusual to or abnormal for the individual employee; and

(iii) The acute symptoms of the cardiac condition are clearly manifested not later than four (4) hours after the alleged causative exertion.

(c) If an employee suffers a hernia, he is entitled to compensation if he clearly proves that:

(i) The hernia is of recent origin;

(ii) Its appearance was accompanied by pain;

(iii) It was immediately preceded by some accidental strain suffered in the course of the employment; and

(iv) It did not exist prior to the date of the alleged injury.

(d) If an employee establishes his right to compensation for a hernia as provided and elects not to be operated on, he shall not be compensated for the results of future strangulation of the hernia.

(e) In those proceedings in which the entitlement of an employee to benefits for successive compensable injuries is established but no single employer can be determined to be chargeable for the injuries, the division shall apportion the benefit charge in accordance with W.S. 27-14-201(d).