If I suffer an injury while at home recovering from a work injury, may I recover workers’ compensation for the second injury?

It depends on whether the second injury resulted from an independent, intervening cause. If you innocently aggravate your work injury or suffer an injury because of the work injury, you can get workers’ compensation benefits for the second injury. If the second injury is totally unrelated to your work injury, workers’ compensation does not cover the second injury.

For example, if you are walking in your yard and fall because of your prior on-the-job injury to your ankle, workers’ compensation covers your injury. The second injury can be an aggravation of the first one or it can be a different injury. If you injure your arm in the fall, workers’ compensation would cover the injury.