Stoleson v. United States Of America

708 F.2d 1217 (7th Cir. 1983)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P worked in a federal munitions plant as an employee of the contractor operating the plant. Within a few months, P began experiencing the characteristic chest pains of coronary artery disease -- only on weekends. The chest pains were so severe that she was hospitalized. P had suffered either an actual heart attack or an episode of coronary insufficiency. P returned to work but continued having weekend chest pains with increasing frequency till she left the plant in 1971. P eventually talked with Dr. Lange in 1971. He was convinced by her experience and that of several of her co-workers, who had similar symptoms, that excessive exposure to nitroglycerin had caused their coronary arteries to expand and that the sudden withdrawal of nitroglycerin on the weekends had caused the arteries to contract violently. P sued under FTCA alleging that D had been negligent in failing to protect the workers at the plant from excessive exposure to nitroglycerin. Eventually, the district judge found that D had been negligent and that its negligence had caused P's heart disease, and awarded her $53,000 in damages. But he declined to award any damages for her psychosomatic illness after she left the plant. P's heart disease should have abated completely soon after she left the plant. P still had chest pains, she was often dizzy and short of breath, and easily fatigued; she had bouts of high blood pressure, and coughing spells leading to vomiting; she was extremely obese, having gained 100 pounds in 10 years. P's heart disease from nitroglycerin exposure did no medically significant lasting damage. Dr. Goldbloom, the psychiatrist who testified for her, diagnosed her condition as 'hypochondriacal neurosis' -- what is more commonly referred to just as hypochondria -- that had been induced by her heart disease at the plant. Dr. Roberts, the psychiatrist who testified for D, testified that P was indeed a hypochondriac but had probably been one all her adult life. P appealed.