Worker's Unreasonable Refusal of Treatment Dooms Disability Retirement Bid

A Southern California deputy’s request for service-connected disability retirement for on-the-job back injuries was denied after he repeatedly refused recommended medical treatments. Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Alberto Mendoza injured his back in 2014 and 2015 while working at the Todd Road Jail.  Diagnostic imaging showed degenerative disc disease and a disc herniation with material impinging on a nerve root.  In the second half of 2015, a panel-qualified medical evaluator, an orthopedic surgeon and Mendoza's treating physician advised that surgery would be the most e...