Gabriel v. Hyster Co.

Claimant petitions for review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board that reversed the opinion and order of the referee and denied his occupational disease claim for asthma. The issue is compensability. We reverse.

Claimant, at age 24, was employed by Hyster Company in September 1978. He worked initially as a painter. He had had asthma since childhood, with symptoms including rhinorrhea, nasal blockage, watery eyes and difficulty sleeping. Soon after he started working at Hyster, however, he experienced an acute asthma attack, during which he felt unable to breathe sufficiently. He…