Fatal Head Injury–$12 Million Verdict for Hospital Negligence
by admin on 22/02/10 at 10:03 am
As a San Francisco brain injury lawyer, I was extremely satisfied by a jury’s award of $12 million for hospital malpractice on Thursday to a Southern California woman who was left in a vegetative state after she waited hours at a hospital before being sent elsewhere for surgery to remove an air-rifle pellet from her brain in 2007.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, a Pomona Superior Court jury found that Greater El Monte Community Hospital was negligent in treating Jessica Ramirez, 22. Her mother, Ofelia Reynaga, brought the suit on behalf of her daughter. This was a particular tragedy for the community because Ramirez was studying to be a police officer. She was shot in the head with an air gun at a family member’s house in September 2007. Although suffering from a head injury, she was conscious and walked herself into the emergency room.
She waited for five hours before being flown by helicopter to a Pasadena hospital where she was rushed into surgery for the brain trauma. The jury was persuaded that her, by then, “minimally conscious” state could have been avoided with prompt surgery. During the wait, bleeding and pressure on Ramirez’s brain caused permanent damage and she now requires 24-hour care.
Read the entire article at InjuryBoard.com.
