Ruling redefines PTSD claims from one incident – are your HR protocols ready?
Pennsylvania court grants PTSD workers’ comp to police sergeant, reversing a denial on December 8, 2025.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania overturned a denial of workers’ compensation benefits to Steve Russo, a 14-year Upper Darby police veteran who developed PTSD after a 2020 on-duty incident that ended in a suspect’s death. The court ruled the episode was an abnormal working condition under Pennsylvania’s mental/mental standard and sent the case back to award wage-loss benefits, statutory interest, and other amounts tied to his disabling mental injury.
The judges emphasized a simple principle with big implications for HR: evaluate a traumatic workplace event as a whole, not as isolated parts that might seem routine in a high‑risk job. In Russo’s case, the confrontation escalated into a fight for his weapon, a close-range shot, and unsuccessful efforts to save the suspect’s life. A Workers’ Compensation Judge had downplayed the encounter as “not uncommon” and discounted a treating psychologist’s findings. The appellate court rejected that view, calling the reasoning unsupported by the record and the credibility analysis flawed.
The timeline also mattered. Russo returned to full duty in March 2021 but was removed from work by December 2021 as symptoms intensified. Treating records described nightmares, intrusive memories, hypervigilance, and concentration problems. The psychologist used...
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