California Injury Lawyers Blog

More than six years after Trent Hughes sustained a spinal cord injury in an accident that left him a paraplegic, a Riverside County jury has awarded a $16.5 million California medical malpractice verdict to him and his wife Lisa in their personal injury case against neurosurgeon Christopher Pham.

Trent, who at the time was 41, began experiencing numbness in his toes and feet, as well as excruciating pain in his lower back while on an off-road vehicle excursion on November 2, 2003. He was flown to a Palm Springs, California where, at about 2pm, he was diagnosed with a spine fracture.

Hospital records indicate that Pham, who was on call, was supposed to arrive at the Emergency Room within 20 minutes after he was contacted to assess the extent of Trent's injuries. However, he didn't see the patient until the following afternoon. Also, Pham did not perform the surgery to decompress Trent's spinal cord until the day after that one.

The couple's Riverside County medical malpractice lawsuit contends that by the time Pham conducted the surgery, Trent's spinal cord injury had become irreversible and, as a result, he is now paralyzed.

Before the accident, the Hughes, who are former high school sweethearts, ran a successful air conditioning business. Following Trent's catastrophic injuries, they lost their business.

The jury's verdict against Pham comes after a re-trial. A verdict issued by a jury after the case was tried in January 2004 was overturned because of defense counsel misconduct during their closing. The couple has already settled their medical malpractice claim against Desert Regional Medical Center.

The $16.5 million Riverside County medical malpractice verdict includes damages for medical expenses, rehabilitative costs, loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and lost income.

Surgical Errors
Surgical mistakes, delayed surgeries, wrong site surgeries, and accidentally leaving a medical instrument or another object in the patient following surgery are surgical errors that can be grounds for California medical malpractice. These are not errors that can be fixed easily. In some cases, medical mistakes can prove catastrophic for the patient.

Riverside jury awards Arizona couple $16.5 million in medical malpractice suit, Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2010

Former valley doctor found negligent, Mydesert.com, February 2, 2010

More than three years after Jaklin Mikhal Romine sustained catastrophic injuries during a Los Angeles County car crash, she is now suing Nissan Motor Co., Nissan Design America, Nissan North America Inc., Vintec Co., and Ikeda Engineering for California auto products liability.

Romine was stopped at a Pasadena intersection on October 21, 2006 when another vehicle rear-ended her 2000 Nissan Frontier. In her Los Angeles County injury lawsuit, Romine claims that a seatback defect caused the seat she was on to collapse backward. As a result, her head struck the back seat, and she sustained serious head injuries and spinal cord injuries. Romine is now an incomplete paraplegic.

Romine's Los Angeles auto products liability complaint accuses Nissan of knowing that the seatbacks in her pickup truck were not strong enough to survive a modest rear-end crash. She says that other car accident victims have filed personal injury lawsuits over the same defect in the past. She also says in-house testifying verified that the seatbacks were faulty.

The plaintiff contends the seatback defect could have easily been corrected with stronger recliners, seatback frames, and belt-integrated seats. She is accusing Nissan of choosing profit over vehicle occupants safety.

Seat Back Defects
Seat back defects are not uncommon and they can prove fatal. A seat that collapses backwards can cause serious head and spinal injuries for the occupant in the seat that collapses, while the person riding behind the defective seat that falls backward is at risk of sustaining chest and head injuries. A seat that collapses forward during a collision can also prove catastrophic for vehicle occupants.

Car manufacturers are supposed to design and make seats that are free from defects and will not collapse during a collision. An automaker can be held liable for Orange County, California auto products liability if serious injuries or death results.

Fox Business News, January 13, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Products Liability, Justia

Seat Failures and Occupant Restraints

The city of Palo Alto and car accident victim Silvio Obregon have reached a $1.45 million California personal injury settlement over the September 6, 2006 car crash that left Obregon with a spinal cord injury. The California injury plaintiff was hurt when he was rear-ended by a city-owned vehicle driven by Ruben Salas, a city utilities worker.

Obregon was stopped at a red light when Salas, who took his eyes off the road to reach for his cell phone, struck him. Now, Obregon can no longer work as a supervisor for a janitorial services company, which was a job he held for 20 years. He suffers from peripheral neuropathy, and an electronic stimulator had to be surgically implanted in him to decrease his back pain.

Cell Phone Driving Accidents
California distracted driving accidents can have catastrophic consequences. Reaching over to grab a cell phone or taking one's eyes off the road for just a few seconds to read a text message may seem like harmless acts. However, the few seconds it takes to complete these distractions have been known to kill people.

The federal government recently launched Distraction.gov, a distracted driving Web site. Some of the facts provided:

• From the University of Utah: Use of any cell phone slows driver reaction time as much as driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% slows a drunk driver's reaction time.

• From the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety: Using a handheld device increases a motorist's risk of hurting themselves in a car crash by four times.

• From Carnegie Mellon: Using a cell phone while driving slows brain activity involved for driving by 37%.

A driver who is distracted can be sued for Orange County, California personal injury if his or her negligence, carelessness, or recklessness hurts someone else.

Palo Alto pays $1.45 million for car accident, Palo Alto Online, January 6, 2010

Statistics and Facts About Distracted Driving, Distraction.gov

Related Web Resources:
Spinal Cord Injury, Mayo Clinic

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

The US Supreme Court is refusing to review the $83 million verdict awarded in the California SUV rollover lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. The auto manufacturer has sought to have the auto products liability award against it overturned since 2004 when a jury awarded $369 million to Benetta Buell-Wilson for her personal injuries. That was the first time Ford had ever lost a products liability lawsuit involving a Ford Explorer.

During the appeals process, the award amount was reduced. Eventually Buell-Wilson and her husband were awarded $55 million in punitive damages and $27.6 million in compensatory damages.

In 2002, Buell-Wilson sustained a spinal cord injury that left her a paraplegic. The then 46-year-old mother of two swerved her Ford Explorer to avoid striking a metal object that fell from another vehicle. Her sport utility vehicle then rolled over four times.

Buell-Wilson and her husband sued Ford for California personal injury. They claimed that the Ford Explorer had a poorly designed roof and that it was prone to rollovers.

SUV Rollover Accidents
Thousands of motor vehicle crashes are caused by auto rollovers. The vehicle may be an SUV, a van, a passenger vehicle, or a light truck. Out of all these vehicles, however, SUV's have the highest rollover rate.

Auto defects that can lead to SUV rollover injuries:

• Poor vehicle design with its higher center of gravity
• Defective tires
• Roofs that easily crush inward during a rollover accident
• Defective seat belts
• Inadequate safety features

An Orange County, California SUV rollover accidents can lead to spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, massive internal injuries, and wrongful death.

Auto manufacturers are supposed to design vehicles that are not easily prone to rolling over. The motor vehicles should also come with the proper safety devices to protect passengers in the event of a rollover accident. An SUV rollover can be caused by a defective auto part or by a negligent motorist. Injured parties may have grounds for filing an Orange County, California auto products liability lawsuit.

Supreme Court rejects Ford's appeal in rollover case, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2009

$369M Verdict In SUV Rollover, CBS, June 4, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Statement of Benetta Buell-Wilson, Public Citizen, March 23, 2004

US Supreme Court

Rollover: The Hidden History of the SUV

A 19-year-old driver is suing the California county of Santa Cruz for personal injury after she became paralyzed from the chin down in a catastrophic single car crash on April 7. Alexandria Pomianowski claims she lost control of her vehicle and drove it into oncoming traffic because the wet road she was on did not have the proper signage and was dangerous.

While the California Highway Patrol contends that given the road conditions at the time Pomianowski was operating her Mustang convertible at an unsafe speed, the plaintiff's California car accident lawsuit is naming Santa Cruz County, which is responsible for maintaining the road where the accident occurred, the driver of the GMC pickup that she struck when her car drover across the double-yellow line, and Ford Motor Co., her auto's manufacturer. as the defendants.

Pomianowski's California injury lawyer says his client has already sustained more than $1 million in medical bills.

Spinal Cord injuries
Spinal cord injuries can result in various degrees of paralysis. An SCI can be costly to treat medically and depending on the degree of injury, the injured person may require specialized medical devices and round-the-clock care.

An SCI injury victim may have to work with surgeons, psychologists, spinal cord medicine specialists, and physical therapists to recover as much as is possible from such a serious injury. Medications, surgery, experimental treatments, and ongoing care may be required. Not only must an SCI be stabilized, but also the patient may have to combat secondary health issues, such as blood clots, pressure soars, bladder problems, respiratory infections, and other complications.

In many cases, spinal cord injuries are irreversible and can be traumatic for the patient, whose life will likely have changed forever. Having a loved one who is suffering from SCI can also take a toll on family members and friends.

Paralyzed San Lorenzo Valley high school grad sues Santa Cruz County over accident, Mercury News, November 18, 2009

Spinal Cord Injuries, Mayo Clinic

Related Web Resources:
Read the County's Recommended Action to the Tort Claim (PDF)

Quadriplegia, Spinal Injury Network

In August 2007, Griselda Bernardino and several other people were injured in an SUV rollover crash in San Bernardino County, California. According to the plaintiffs' San Bernardino County, California auto products liability complaint, the catastrophic motor vehicle crash happened because the tread separated from the SUV's left rear tire. As a result of the tire defect, Bernardino lost control of the Ford Expedition and the SUV rolled over.

Bernardino sustained permanent spinal cord injuries and crushing head injuries. Also injured in the San Bernardino County SUV accident were Alonso Martinez, Ayari Martinez, Melani Elizardi, Diana Orozco, and Bianca Orozco. They were all ejected from the vehicle and sustained serious injuries. The latter three are minors. The five of them are also plaintiffs in this California personal injury case. There were other passengers in the SUV who were partially ejected and also were hurt.

The defendants in the San Bernardino motor vehicle crash case are Ford Motor Corporation, TRW Vehicle Safety Systems, Continental Tire Corporation, Beceril Tire Shop, and Chino Hills Ford. The plaintiffs claim that the SUV, made by Ford and purchased at Chino Hills Ford, did not properly protect them during the California rollover accident.

The SUV did not have Electronic Stability Control, which was already available when the auto accident happened. The plaintiffs say that ESC could have allowed Bernardino to stay in control of the vehicle. They also allege that the safety restraint system in the vehicle was defective and dangerous (alleged defects included inertial unlatching, retractor failure, false latching, inadvertent unlatching, and lack of pretensioners) and that the plaintiffs knew that these systems and parts could fail.

Other defects in the SUV noted by the plaintiffs include the lack of side curtain air bags, the windows' defective tempered glass, the driver's side door latch, and the SUV's seat backs and seats. They also say that the SUV's pillars, roof rails, and windshield headers were not built to withstand the weight of the Ford Expedition when it rolled over and the roof crushed inward.

The decision to use Continental ContiTrac SUV tires on the Expedition, say the plaintiffs, was a dangerous choice for a vehicle that nonprofessional motorists would drive.

Some Catastrophic Injuries that Can Arise During SUV Accidents:

• Spinal cord injuries
• Crushed bones
• Burn injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Broken bones
• Internal injuries
• Death

Frontline Rollover, PBS

Related Web Resources:
NHTSA

Safercar.gov

Ford Motor Company

In Orange County, California, a mother and her 11-year-old daughter are to receive $55 million for injuries they sustained in a 2002 Costa Mesa car accident on Mother's Day. Leilaini Gutierrez is now paralyzed.

The judgment was originally awarded in 2007, but the federal government, the defendant in the car accident lawsuit, filed an appeal. Today, a judge awarded the 11-year-old girl about $54 million ($31 million in damages and $23 million for medical costs). Leilani's mother, June Gutierrez, is to receive $1 million for her physical and emotional injuries. The California civil award is being called the largest Orange County, California personal injury award to ever be issued. The Gutierrezes' civil complaint was filed against the US government because the driver of the car that caused the accident, Michael Leinert, worked for the US Department of Defense at the time of the motor vehicle collision.

The catastrophic car accident took place in the early evening as June was driving on Newport Boulevard. Leinert was in a rental car when he ran a red light on Wilson Street, striking the Chevrolet Suburban that June and Leilani were riding. The suburban struck a utility pole and flipped.

Leilani, then four, sustained a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed. As a quadriplegic, she is dependent on 24-hour nursing care and a ventilator. She has undergone 24 surgeries and spent 275 days in the hospital since the tragic Orange County, California car accident. Procedures she has had to undergo have included a bone graft, a tracheotomy, and spinal cord stabilization. Her life expectancy has been shortened to 35 years.

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCIs)
• 250,000 people in the US suffer from spinal cord injuries.
• 11,000 new spinal cord injuries occur each year.
• Common causes of SCIs are motor vehicle crashes, acts of violence, fall accidents, sports-related injuries, and other injuries.

If someone you love sustained a catastrophic injury because a motorist or another party was negligent, your loved one may be entitled to California personal injury compensation.

A person that is suffering from quadriplegia is paralyzed from the shoulders down. This means that he or she will need help to do most tasks. A quadriplegic will also likely require specialized medical care, procedures, and devices in order to live as normal a life as possible. Obtaining financial recovery from all negligent parties can provide the necessary funds for all these special needs.

Mom, daughter get $55 million award in 2002 crash, OC Register, June 24, 2009

$55 million judgment for quadriplegic Costa Mesa girl, OC Register, September 13, 2007

Related Web Resources:
Quadriplegia, Spinal Injury Network

Spinal Cord Injuries, Medline Plus

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