$700,000 Brain Injury
The Plaintiff’s Decedant was proceeding to her home from church with her husband on November 24th, when she was struck by a drunk driver. She was wheelchair bound at the time and was 39 years of age.
When she was transported via ambulance to the hospital, she was placed in a hallway and left to languish with no immediate, emergency medical care whatsoever. A pedestrian struck by a motor vehicle (especially a wheelchair bound individual) must be seen and evaluated in the emergency department on a stat basis–clearly in five minutes or less. She suffered with nothing more than a ruptured spleen which required fluid, and blood replacement, as well as emergency surgery, after which she would have made a full recovery.
However, due to ongoing negligence on the part of the emergency department, she was simply left in the hallway until she coded due to exsanguination. However, the saga does not end here. After she coded, the records indicate that there was no attempt at any resuscitation for a full five minutes while she sat in full arrest in the middle of the emergency department. Further, when CPR was finally begun, the emergency room personnel failed to intubate in a timely fashion to maintain a patent airway and deliver oxygen. The final result was absolutely predictable. She suffered a painful and tragic death due to nothing more than a ruptured spleen.