What the panel ordered
The Board reversed the WCJ's determination that the applicant's spinal surgeries constitute an amputation and are entitled to temporary disability indemnity beyond the two-year/104-week cap, amending the Findings and Award accordingly and returning the matter to the trial level for further proceedings on remaining issues.
The Appeals Board granted defendant's petition for reconsideration to allow time to study the record and applicable law, and assigned the case for an en banc decision due to the important legal issue regarding the scope of the amputation exception to the two-year/104-week cap on temporary disability indemnity in Labor Code section 4656(c)(2)(C).
What was disputed, and how it came out
Each issue the panel decided, with the reasoning it gave. An outcome is what this panel did on this record — not a rule, and not a prediction.
The Board held that the term 'amputations' means severance or removal of a limb, part of a limb, or other body appendage, including both traumatic loss and surgical removal during treatment, but the applicant's spinal surgeries do not constitute an amputation under this definition, so the applicant is not entitled to temporary disability indemnity beyond the cap.
From the decision · page 21 For the reasons discussed below, we hold that the word "amputations," as used in section