4/14/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly period of the illness. Considering the nature of his work - where he had to clean rooms, handle, segregate, and dispose waste materials including syringes and other biomedical wastes - and the timeline leading to the diagnosis of illness, it can be safely concluded that he contracted Chronic Hepatitis C while on board Queen Mary 2. There is a reasonable connection between the nature of his work and the Hepatitis C virus he acquired during the period of his employment to justify the compensability of his illness. Thus, the company-designated physician's declaration that Rosales' Hepatitis C infection is not work-related is erroneous. With regard to Rosales' fatty liver, We find the illness to be work-related too. Fatty liver (Steatosis) is common in people afflicted with Hepatitis C as a consequence of viral infection.[65] Considering that his fatty liver is attributed to his Chronic Hepatitis C illness, it is also work-related. Rosales is entitled to permanent total disability benefits. We find basis for the award of permanent total disability benefits in favor of Rosales. The assessment should take into consideration the nature and severity of the work related illness in order to arrive at a disability grading that is commensurate to the illness sustained. In Talaroc v. Arpaphil Shipping Corp,[66] the Court summarized the rules governing claims for permanent and total disability benefits in relation to the 120day and 240- day rule as follows: 1. The company-designated physician must issue a final medical assessment on the seafarer's disability grading within a period of 120 days from the time the seafarer reported to him; 2. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days, without any justifiable reason, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total; 3. If the company-designated physician fails to give his assessment within the period of 120 days with a sufficient justification (e.g., seafarer required further medical treatment or seafarer was uncooperative), then the period of diagnosis and treatment shall be extended to 240 days. The employer has the burden to prove that the company-designated physician has sufficient justification to extend the period; and 4. If the company-designated physician still fails to give his assessment within the extended period of 240 days, then the seafarer's disability becomes permanent and total, regardless of any justification.[67] (Citation omitted) The POEA-SEC, which is incorporated in the contract or the governing law between a seafarer and his employer, provides that the disability assessment shall be based on the schedule of disability suffered and disease contracted.[68] It must be pointed out that the grade 12 medical assessment given by the company-designated physician was made known to Rosales on February 25, 2014, or 218 days from his repatriation on July 22, 2013. A careful study of the February 25, 2014 Letter[69] of the companydesignated physician stating the assessment and disability grading recommended shows that it is not the final and definitive assessment contemplated by the POEA-SEC. The relevant paragraph of the February 25, 2014 Letter states: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66265 8/14