Thrown shoe triggers firing but employer still owes lifetime medical

The worker was a lead teacher in a two-year-old classroom when she fell on December 16, 2021, and was treated for tenosynovitis, an inflammation of the tendon sheath in her wrist. Ebenezer accepted the claim and accommodated her return to work with restrictions in January 2022. 

Then came surgery in March 2022. It failed. A second surgery followed in October. Recovery kept her cycling between work and medical leave for months, with her doctor adjusting restrictions repeatedly through early 2023. 

By March 2023, she was back in the classroom but in pain from what she believed was a new aggravation of her injury. She asked to go home. Ebenezer had no coverage for her class, so she stayed. 

Later that day, a child threw a shoe and hit another teacher. The parties disputed what happened next, but the employer considered the worker’s actions inappropriate and terminated her. 

She found work elsewhere. By the time her initial benefit period expired on November 14, 2023, she was earning at least what she had made at Ebenezer – which is why the court denied her bid for increased disability benefits under Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-207(3)(B).