N.H. v. Confidential
Oct 01, 2014OUTCOME: 1,250,000.00
On October 12, 2013, a non emergency transport company undertook transporting our client to her home from the hospital. Our client had previously suffered an unrelated injury which left her a quadriple ... gic and wheelchair bound. While under the care of the non emergency medical personnel, our client was dropped nearly eight feet vertically, down a set of stairs, on to a cement pavement and onto her head. Two purportedly trained and licensed paramedics attempted to carry her up to her front door when the incident occurred. Both of these employees made the conscious decision to carry our client up the stairs while in a wheelchair not equipped or designed to safely climb stairs. As one employee pulled up on the chair from behind, the other pushed up from the front. During this reckless process, one of the non emergency medical transport paramedics lost control of the wheelchair, and allowed our client to fall forward. Instead of making any attempt to stop our client from falling or taking any action whatsoever to break her fall, the other paramedic responsible for her safety, completely moved out of the way and allowed her to fall down the stairs and onto the cement ground. After her head and limp body struck the cement, the paramedic that was above her proceeded to fall down, and landed on top of her head with all of his weight. Our client was taken emergently to the Operating Room and brain surgery was performed by a neurosurgeon to remove the SDH and relieve the pressure on her brain. Her diagnosis was a right SDH with mass effect and midline shift of the brain. The surgery performed was a right craniotomy for evacuation of the SDH, placement of a subdural drain and a temporalis muscle fascia harvest for patch duraplasty (repair of the dura, the covering on the brain). This necessitated removal and replacement of a portion of her skull. Our client was intubated and placed on a ventilator to assist in breathing and was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit after surgery. Our client remained hospitalized for the next three weeks. Much of that time was spent in the Intensive Care Unit. Her hospital course was complicated and doctors were unable to wean her from the ventilator until the end of October. She developed infections requiring IV antibiotics and anemia . Her neurological status did not return to her previous baseline and she had difficulty swallowing and was unable to speak. Testing found a severe dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) with poor airway protection and a risk for aspiration (inhaling liquid and food into the lungs). She also had to be placed on Keppra, a medication to prevent seizures caused by the SDH. Over the next few weeks and months, our client continued to suffer from problems caused by her head injury and hospitalization. However, somewhat miraculously, our client made a very good recovery and ultimately stabilized with little lasting effect neurologically. Here at Henningsen Injury Attorneys we are happy to report that we were able to make a successful recovery for our very deserving client.
