On April 22, 2009, Evan Martin, a 13 year old eighth grade student, was injured at school in Port Jefferson after a teacher assigned him and another student the task of closing a sliding gate to the school parking lot. The gate was a large chain-link structure measuring about 16 feet wide and six feet… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Amputation Injuries
Subscribe to Amputation Injuries RSS FeedSubway Tracks Accident – Jury’s Pain and Suffering Verdict Affirmed after Court of Appeals Addresses Liability Issues
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Foot InjuriesOn March 9, 2006, Robert Obey fell onto the tracks at a subway station in Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, a train ran over his left foot. Mr. Obey, then 51 years old, sued claiming that the transit authority’s conductor was negligent because he could have stopped the train in time to avoid the accident. The defense… Continue Reading
Leg Crushed, then Surgically Amputated after Man Struck by Car
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Medical MalpracticeOn December 3, 2004 Alfonso Marin had just dropped off co-workers at their construction site when he was standing behind his parked van at 172nd Street and Broadway in upper Manhattan and an SUV smashed into him, pinning his left leg against the van and crushing his femur. Marin, then 40 years old, was rushed… Continue Reading
Above-Knee Amputation Verdict Affirmed in Medical Malpractice Case
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Loss of Consortium Damages, Medical MalpracticeOn October 10, 2004, Donald Schultz twisted his ankle walking up the stairs at work (he was a 36 year old police dispatcher for the City of Tonawanda) and sustained a simple, non-displaced ankle fracture. He was treated at the local hospital with a brace and instructed to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon. Mr…. Continue Reading
Catastrophic Injury Awards Affirmed for Worker in Roadway Accident
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Loss of Consortium DamagesOn October 24, 2008 Robert Loja was working for a landscaping firm in Sleepy Hollow. Just after parking his employer’s truck on Benedict Avenue and unloading his lawn mowing equipment from his truck’s trailer, Loja was struck by a car driven by a young woman on her way to work. His legs were crushed between… Continue Reading
Appellate Court Orders Significant Reduction of Pain and Suffering Verdict for Newborn who Sustained Loss of Fingers in Medical Malpractice Case
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Medical MalpracticeAfter only 23 1/2 weeks gestation, Zalaya Tart was born prematurely at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx on April 29, 2005. She weighed only 542 grams (1.1 pounds) and was just on the edge of being able to survive. Zalaya had a host of life-threatening medical problems associated with her extreme prematurity and low… Continue Reading
Court Affirms Medical Malpractice Verdict for Failure to Diagnose and Treat Compartment Syndrome but Orders Significant Damages Reduction
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Medical MalpracticeOn September 24, 2000, Thomas Burke fell from his wheelchair and injured his left foot. Mr. Burke, then 57 years old, had been afflicted with progressive multiple sclerosis for 20 years and had been wheelchair-bound since the mid-1990s. A week after he fell, Burke consulted with the first of several doctors about continuing leg pain…. Continue Reading
Teenager’s Catastrophic Arm Injury Verdict Affirmed on Appeal
Posted in Amputation InjuriesOn October 2, 2004, Gary Hoover was operating a tractor-driven post hole digger for a fence project in his backyard in upstate Cambria, New York. This is a very dangerous piece of equipment. Hoover’s 16 year old step-daughter, Jessica, was helping him by holding the digger’s gear box to line up the auger so a… Continue Reading
Court Slashes Verdict for Teenager’s Hand Injury
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Hand InjuriesDean Robinson was playing in a pick-up basketball game at P.S. 89 in the Bronx on May 5, 2006. The 14 year old made a clap lay-up (a show-off move in which one releases the ball towards the basket and simultaneously claps or slaps the backboard with his shooting hand). That was likely the last… Continue Reading
Review of the 10 Largest Pain and Suffering Awards Approved by New York’s Appellate Courts in 2011
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Brain Injuries, Leg Injuries, Paralysis, Wrongful DeathNew York’s appellate courts issued decisions in 10 cases in 2011 that approved pain and suffering damages in the sum of $3,500,000 or more. The largest was $12,000,000 for a 24 year old woman who was paralyzed when a weight-lifting machine fell on top of her. The courts affirmed the jury verdict in five of… Continue Reading
Multimillion Dollar Verdict Affirmed on Appeal for Man who Fell and was Run Over by Subway Train
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Eye and Vision InjuriesJames Sanders abused alcohol and heroin and he ended up in jail for a year. As a condition of his parole, he was placed in a methadone program at Kings County Hospital. At about 10 a.m. on December 12, 2002, the 41 year old Sanders went to his methadone clinic, got "medicated" and as he… Continue Reading
Record Pain and Suffering Award in Leg Amputation Case
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Loss of Consortium DamagesThis tragic amputation case was big and important at trial two years ago and now that an appeals court has weighed in, it’s still big and important. We wrote about Gloria Aguilar’s case back in 2009, here. Ms. Aguilar, then a 45 year old housekeeper, had been run over by a city bus in 2005… Continue Reading
College Student’s Multi-Million Dollar Verdict against Transit Authority for Leg Amputation Reversed on Appeal – Expert Testimony as to Subway Driver Reaction Time Speculative and therefore Improperly Submitted to Jury
Posted in Amputation InjuriesWe reported back in February 2009, here, about a case in which a Manhattan jury found a subway car operator 65% liable for running over a drunk college student (and severing his leg below the knee).The jury found that the driver should have seen the young man in time to stop. The defendant argued he… Continue Reading
Hand Crushed in Car Accident – $4,000,000 Pain and Suffering Jury Verdict for 59 Year Old Man Reduced on Appeal to $1,350,000
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Hand InjuriesIsrael Ramos was minding his own business while out for a nice day’s drive in New York City on April 17, 1998 when, all of a sudden, his van flipped over on the Bronx River Parkway. Unbeknown to him, a car thief was being chased a few miles back by the New York City Police… Continue Reading
Finger Amputation Cases – Pain and Suffering Awards Range from $85,000 to $2,000,000
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Hand InjuriesThe first thing many new mothers ask, even before seeing their newborns, is: "Are there 10 fingers (and toes)?" Of course, the answer is almost always "yes." Fingers can, though, be lost – amputated – later in life and when that happens it’s usually due to an accident with a lawnmower or a power saw…. Continue Reading
Woman’s Leg Amputated after Bus Accident; $27,500,000 Verdict Will Not Stand
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Leg InjuriesIt’s a huge verdict for someone who lost a leg in an accident – $27,500,000 – but it will never be paid. It will either be reduced on appeal or settled before then. Here’s the story. Plaintiff Gloria Aguilar, then 45 years old, was walking in midtown Manhattan on November 4, 2005 when she was… Continue Reading
Another Subway Accident – $5,950,000 Pain and Suffering Verdict for Man Struck by Subway Car (after returning from methadone clinic and drinking pure rum)
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Eye and Vision Injuries, Surprising Damage VerdictsIt never ends, does it? Another careless person fell onto the New York City subway tracks and was grievously injured. Then he lawyered up, sued the city and a Brooklyn jury recently found the city’s motorman 70% at fault with the result that the injured fellow was awarded $5,950,000 for his pain and suffering. Walter… Continue Reading
Another $1,000,000 Unexplained Appeals Court Reduction of a Pain and Suffering Damages Jury Verdict
Posted in Amputation Injuries, Surprising Damage VerdictsOne day after we wrote about an appeals court’s unexplained reduction of $1,350,000 from a jury verdict for pain and suffering in a Suffolk County case, today we have another appeals court doing the same thing. What’s going on here? In Lopez v. New York City Transit Authority, the plaintiff was riding his bicycle when… Continue Reading
Leg Amputated After Drunk College Student Struck By Subway Train – $2,300,000 Pain and Suffering Jury Verdict
Posted in Amputation InjuriesA college student, Dustin Dibble, was out on the town for four hours drinking with his buddies, he got drunk (blood alcohol level more than two times the legal limit for driving), ended up on the subway tracks (he doesn’t know how he got there) and lost his leg below his knee when he was… Continue Reading