Missouri Injury Law Blog

DuPage County IL – A settlement was recently announced regarding a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the husband of Samantha Medina, Chris Medina, against Dr. Mark Kelly and his practice, Winfield Radiology; Dr. Henry Echiverri and his practice, Neuromed Clinic; and Central DuPage Hospital.

Medina was only 24 years old and mother of a now 6 year old when she died of a stroke. Personal injury medical malpractice attorneys representing Medina’s family, stated doctors failed to properly evaluate and treat her, allowing her to die, and thus then Illinois wrongful death lawsuit.

On December 10, 2006, Medina’s husband took her to the hospital after she complained of a sudden headache and numbness on her right side. She died 17 days later.

The $5.3 million settlement was announced on August 26, 2010.

For almost ten years, Sansone Law has vigorously represented families that have suffered this type of loss due to Missouri or Illinois medical malpractice and negligence. Whether a Missouri personal injury or a family member’s Illinois wrongful death, contact experienced Missouri and Illinois attorney Benjamin Sansone to represent you.

August 21, 2007, 19 year old Kendra Lymon was driving her Dodge Neon through an intersection and was struck by Robert Bohn, a part time tractor-trailer driver for Bynum Transport, Inc. Another tractor-trailer in the opposite turn lane blocked Bohn’s view, but he turned left anyway hitting Lymon on her driver’s side and crushing the entire vehicle. Bohn insisted he had a green arrow, but it was later found, through eyewitnesses, that Lymon had the green light.

Prior to the accident Lymon was a student of South Florida community College, majoring in psychology. Lymon had a bright future ahead of her. She spoke six languages and was working as an aide for the Florida Institute of Neurologic Rehabilitation. Since the car accident, she has been left with extensive personal injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, which require her to be under constant supervision. She needs assistance with everyday tasks such as bathing, dressing, eating, and all routine tasks and must also use a wheelchair.

On March 18, 2009 a jury returned a personal injury verdict in the amount of $65 million for the plaintiff. Bynum Transport and Robert Bohn argued the amount was excessive, should be reduced and requested a new trial. In their appeal, they specifically challenged the $41,443,401 award for “pain and suffering, disability, physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish, inconvenience, aggravation of disease or physical defect, or loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life.”

In a one-page ruling, the Lakeland based appellate court affirmed the decision to award the jury’s verdict.

The family is pleased, as this money will help provide the 24-hour care Kendra needs to live.

Last week, in Delray Beach, Florida, attorney Andrew Yaffa filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Katie's Kids day care after a staff member found 2 year old Haile Brockington dead inside the facility's van. Haile and the other children were picked up by the van around 9 a.m. that morning and taken to the day care. After arriving, all the children were taken into the facility - but Haile was somehow forgotten. Also, no one apparently missed her throughout the entire day - despite the fact that both her sisters were picked up by the same van and somehow successfully made it into the building. She was found by another staff member around 4:00 p.m. that afternoon when the driver opened the van to take the children home. Haile was trapped in a completely closed van, in Florida, in the middle of summer, for more than 6 hours - and no one noticed. The medical examiner stated that Haile died from heat stroke.

As you might assume, the owners are not speaking to anyone and the staff is shifting blame from one worker to the next. The driver has been identified as Amanda Lee Inman. It was released that she had only been working there since mid July.

State regulations require day care centers to keep a log of who gets on and off the transport vehicle. "There are regulations that are in place that, if the bare minimums were complied with, this baby would still be alive today," Yaffa said. The lawsuit also suggests there were prior incidents in the past when children had been forgotten. I found one source that said a total of 6 such incidents occurred within the single year the day care has been open. Allegedly, there were also occasions where staff had forged or signed Haile's mother's name to the transportation log book.

Attorney Andrew Yaffa stated that he is adding the owners of the day care, Kathryn Muhammad and Barbara Dilthey to the suit - claiming active negligence. The owners have decided to voluntarily close the facility until the situation is resolved.

We feel deeply for this family and this community.

A tractor trailer accident occurred around 11:30 a.m. this past Monday, at the Taylor Avenue overpass. The truck struck the median barrier that runs between east and westbound Highway 40 (Interstate 64), killing the driver, Thomas J. Niemeyer. At this time, witnesses and emergency responders are unsure of the reason why the driver lost control of the truck.

Witnesses said that the truck appeared to be traveling eastbound normally, when the driver abruptly veered to the left, hitting the concrete barrier and stuctural beam and was ejected from the truck. Currently, there are still some questions whether the driver suffered a medical emergency or if it was a mechanical issue that caused the driver to lose control of the truck.

We will be following this tragic accident closely.

This past Wednesday, an jury returned a $6.2 million medical malpractice personal injury verdict against Shands Hospital in favor for the family of a University of North Florida Business School professor who died in 2002 from complications arising after a gastric bypass surgery. He was only 41 and is survived by his wife and 10-year-old son.

There were no complications or medical malpractice during Mr. Fine’s operation, but 5 days after he developed alarming breathing problems. His medical provider ordered a CT scan of his lungs. En route, he informed the CT technicians that he felt like he was dying and said that he would have trouble breathing if he lay flat. The technicians apparently disregarded this information and strapped him down to the CT table. He had to stay in this position for an undisclosed amount of time while the technicians prepared the scan. During the 4 minute CT scan, Fine died.

The medical malpractice and wrongful death victim's widow filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuit against Shands Hospital. Her wrongful death lawyer stated "They did not check his oxygen saturation levels, nor did they call in a radiologist to check Mr. Fine". The cause of Fine's death is listed as cardiac arrhythmia – which is when a heart stops because of lack of oxygen.

The lack of appropriate equipment in the scanning room – not to mention the lassitude of the medical staff - was the cause of this regrettable and preventable death resulting from medical malpractice.

Missouri wrongful death settlement and Missouri medical malpractice settlement by St Louis Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Sansone - St Louis Missouri Wrongful Death Settlement 4.5 Million.

A Kansas City woman and Missouri premise liability personal injury victim, sustained a fractured foot and dislocated shoulder when she fell from a newly constructed smoking deck at the Green Duck Lounge. The bar had recently built the deck off the rear of the building in response to the smoking ban on indoor spaces. As she walked down the five concrete steps to re-enter the bar, she tripped and fell on what appeared to be, uneven steps. There was no handrail for her to grab onto.

Her serious Missouri personal injury required surgery for a torn rotator cuff, the use of a wheelchair, and 12 missed weeks of work. Boswell hired a Missouri Personal Injury Attorney who learned that the bar never acquired a permit to build the deck. “Our architect said had they done it, the inspector would have said, ‘You’ve got to put handrails in there,’” the Missouri personal injury lawyer said. The bar ended up paying $225,000 to settle the Missouri personal injury suit - $73,437 for medical care and $11,127 for lost wages.

Currently, St Louis personal injury law firm, Sansone Law, is representing an injured client in a very similar case. a restaurant patron and now personal injury victim in St Louis Missouri, slipped and fell while visiting a St. Louis restaurant. The restaurant created an unreasonably dangerous condition by positioning the beer taps in such a way that the overflow cannot help but run into a heavy traffic area. This area was not marked nor was any other preventative measures taken. As the client passed by this narrow traffic area, she slipped on beer, which had overflowed from the tap, and fell hitting her head quite hard on the polished concrete floor. This St Louis injury client has sustained a serious head injury and is still undergoing medical treatment as a result.

Restaurant/ bar owners owe the public the highest degree of care to keep their place of business in a safe condition – which entails not only regular inspections but also, a basic general awareness. Failure to comply with this duty is negligence and makes a business owner legally liable for any personal injuries sustained as a result of such condition.

Missouri Lawyer Weekly article about Missouri Personal Injury Settlement from Slip and Fall at Bar

St Louis Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Sansone Missouri and Illinois Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

A Kansas City woman and Missouri premise liability personal injury victim, sustained a fractured foot and dislocated shoulder when she fell from a newly constructed smoking deck at the Green Duck Lounge. The bar had recently built the deck off the rear of the building in response to the smoking ban on indoor spaces. As she walked down the five concrete steps to re-enter the bar, she tripped and fell on what appeared to be, uneven steps. There was no handrail for her to grab onto.

Her serious Missouri personal injury required surgery for a torn rotator cuff, the use of a wheelchair, and 12 missed weeks of work. Boswell hired a Missouri Personal Injury Attorney who learned that the bar never acquired a permit to build the deck. “Our architect said had they done it, the inspector would have said, ‘You’ve got to put handrails in there,’” the Missouri personal injury lawyer said. The bar ended up paying $225,000 to settle the Missouri personal injury suit - $73,437 for medical care and $11,127 for lost wages.

Currently, St Louis personal injury law firm, Sansone Law, is representing an injured client in a very similar case. a restaurant patron and now personal injury victim in St Louis Missouri, slipped and fell while visiting a St. Louis restaurant. The restaurant created an unreasonably dangerous condition by positioning the beer taps in such a way that the overflow cannot help but run into a heavily traffic area. This area was not marked nor was any other preventative measures taken. As the client passed by this narrow traffic area, she slipped on beer, which had overflowed from the tap, and fell hitting her head quite hard on the polished concrete floor. This St Louis injury client has sustained a serious head injury and is still undergoing medical treatment as a result.

Restaurant/ bar owners owe the public the highest degree of care to keep their place of business in a safe condition – which entails not only regular inspections but also, a basic general awareness. Failure to comply with this duty is negligence and makes a business owner legally liable for any personal injuries sustained as a result of such condition.

Missouri Lawyer Weekly article about Missouri Personal Injury Settlement from Slip and Fall at Bar

St Louis Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Sansone Missouri and Illinois Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

For years under Missouri workers compensation law that the injured employee's sole remedy is to make a Missouri work comp claim. Meaning that they cannot also sue the co-worker that may have been negligent in causing the injury to the worker. That was the give and take of work comp law in Missouri, negligence or legal liability does not need to exist meaning an injury gets compensated regardless of fault, but in exchange the amount of compensation is limited by work comp reimbursement rates and charts depicting value in weeks for certain body parts and injuries.

As many Missouri personal injury victims know, our former governor Matt Blunt tried to take personal injury victim's rights completely away in 2005, he passed sweeping tort reform including strict construction of work comp laws. Well, this has now backfired to a certain extent as the strict construction approach to the Missouri work comp laws has opened up co-worker liability, meaning more insurance coverage and remedies for an injured worker in Missouri under the work comp laws.

The case opening up the road to Missouri co-worker liability in work comp claims is Robinson v Hooker, WD 71207 (Mo. App. 8-3-10). The court reversed a lower court's order dismissing a personal injury negligence lawsuit filed after the injured worker settled his Missouri worker’s compensation claim.

Prior to this case co-worker liability was limited under Badami v Gaertner, 630 S.W.2d 175 (Mo. App. 1982), allowing immunity for co-workers unless the injured worker could prove “something more” beyond negligence. Basically, no co-worker liability unless unless there was proof that a a co-employee purposefully or dangerously caused or increased a risk of injury.

Based on this ruling, if you settled a Missouri work comp within the last five years and believe that a co-worker was negligent in causing your injury you may now have more rights and be able to file a Missouri personal injury lawsuit against your co-employee and thus reach the employers liability insurance meaning more compensation for your injuries. Call St Louis Work Comp Lawyer Benjamin Sansone for a free consultation regarding your Missouri work comp claim.

In cases wherein the injured worker is not an employee they can go straight to a Missouri personal injury lawsuit against the at fault party without being held in worker's compensation court. See Missouri Personal Injury Settlement from Work Place Injury

Around 10:15 this morning 2 people were killed and 40 plus injured from what the Missouri Highway Patrol is calling a Missouri chain-reaction automobile accident on I-44 near Gray Summit. As a semi truck cab – no trailer attached – neared a slowed convergence area, caused by an approaching construction zone, a GMC pickup truck slammed into the back of the cab. The normal speed limit for that area is 70 mph.

Behind the pickup truck two school buses carrying 8th to 12th grade band students were en route to Six Flags for their annual school trip. The first bus carried the female students, while the second bus carried the male students. The driver of the first bus states that she did not see the two vehicles stopped and ran completely over the GMC and up onto the cab of the semi truck – as shown in the picture below. The second school bus then crashed into the back of the first bus.

The female driver of the GMC truck and one female student was killed, while more than 40 more were transported to local hospitals for minor injuries. Two students, aged 16 and 13, are now in stable condition. At this time, no other information is available regarding the condition of the student passengers.

This stretch of highway has seen at least 19 Missouri motor vehicle accidents with 33 fatalities between 2000 and 2007. Most of the Missouri car accidents occur near the Six Flags exit lanes on I-44. See devastating St Louis Missouri truck accident involving family of five as one of many examples. Whether it is defective roadway planning or driver inattention, this area has seen more than their fair share of fatalities.

This is an ongoing and tragic story and the personal injury victims and their families are in our prayers.

St Louis News Video Reporting on I-44 Truck / Bus Accident

The St. Louis dispatch recently had an article exposing the near impossible task of reviewing a doctor’s “resume” or finding any detailed information on Missouri medical malpractice cases they were involved in or if they have any reported medical errors to any supervisory board. Without stepping a toenail on the proverbial soap-box or invoking even a slight stretch of the imagination, we can see where this is something particularly important to patients awaiting surgery. See Serious Medical Errors, Little Public Information.

It began as an investigation into a specific 2007 surgery where a doctor, from DePaul Health Center, removed the wrong kidney. The reporter began his research at, what is implied to be, a typical starting point for these types of things. As he asserts, one would think a mistake of this size would have many different agencies involved. Not so. Here is a list of all the agencies he contacted regarding this incident: Joint Commission –who accredits hospitals, the Missouri Courts, Missouri Division of Insurance – in search of the malpractice database, National Practitioner Data Bank – which states what doctors paid malpractice claims, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services – who investigates errors at hospitals, Missouri Board of Professional Registration for the Healing Arts – which disciplines doctors, and finally DePaul Health Center itself.

Not one of these agencies had a clear description of what happened, nor did they list who the specific doctor was that botched the surgery. Each agency would remove any identifiers before releasing the information – which kinda defeats the purpose of the request - or they simply would not answer the question at all. This is the only information the reporter was able to obtain: there was a negligent incident – not necessarily the one in question and there was a Missouri Medical Malpractice Lawsuit payout of $1.7 million – not necessarily to the patient in question. Any other information was too broad to even try to associate with this medical malpractice case.

In November 2008 Olena and Shari Novak, a mother and her adult daughter, were the victims of a head on collision. The car accident caused serious and permanent personal injury, including permanent brain injuries to the daughter and a broken neck, among other personal injuries, to the mother. The vehicle that struck them was operated by 18 year old Nicole Fisk, Pizza Hut delivery driver. The negligent driver suffered only minor injuries.

As presented at the car accident personal injury trial, Fisk had a seizure while driving, blacked out, and hit the Novaks. Injury lawyers for the Novaks filed a lawsuit against Fisk and Pizza Hut. The driver was later dropped from the injury lawsuit. Novak’s personal injury attorneys contend that Pizza Hut was responsible for assessing whether or not Fisk was a competent driver before putting her on the road and therefore is, ultimately, culpable for the accident and resulting personal injuries to the victims.

A key point to this particular case is that Pizza Hut asserts their employee was not diagnosed with seizures until after the accident and did have the qualifications to drive for the company – having a valid driver’s license, clean driving record, her own vehicle and auto insurance.

One attorney for Pizza Hut, James Yukevich, argued that Fisk had been to a doctor several times prior to the accident, complaining of “staring spells, trouble breathing, and at times unresponsiveness.” At no time was she diagnosed with epilepsy - until after the accident.

Personal injury plaintiff attorney, John Gomez, says that Pizza Hut is only shifting “blame for its negligence to the doctors who treated Fisk and the state DMV” which issued her a license. He purports that the California DMV sets a minimum standard for California drivers; as such, Pizza Hut should have done more to ensure that Fisk was a safe and suitable driver.

My cooking barely sustains life so we have a lot of takeout delivered to our home. I started thinking back on all of our deliveries – all the way back to yesterday - and realized that beyond our faithful and beloved Chinese delivery man, I rarely even speak to these guys and gals beyond the required four words: thank, you, very, much. I truly don’t care if they can tell a good joke, if they respond appropriately to another coworker when he/she continues to make mistakes on the job, or if they are even able to formulate a complete thought. I do care, however, if they have a medical condition that would heighten the risk of them hitting my child, who is forced to play in the street since moving to the city, or my car, which still has a hefty bank loan attached to it.

I wanted to see if Pizza Hut asked - as most employers must these days - if there were any medical reasons why this would-be employee could not perform the position’s required tasks. So I submitted my application to Pizza Hut. I went through endless pages of personality questions set up to weed out the non communicative, anti-team player and possible psycho, but not one question on the actual physical ability to perform the job. They did ask for permission to run a DMV background – so that is something.

Persona Injury Plaintiffs awarded 10.8 Million against Pizza Hut.

Contact Ben Sansone - St Louis Mo car accident lawyer and brain injury lawyer