Quadriplegia

Published on: November 20, 2012

An eighteen-year old resident of an apartment building was walking along the grounds

by Stephen Bilkis

An eighteen-year old resident of an apartment building was walking along the grounds of the apartment building in Florida when he met an accident. He lay on the concrete pavement, unable to move because of a spinal injury. A few minutes later, an employee of the apartment owner was making his rounds of the apartment. He saw the eighteen- year old sprawled on the pavement and thought that he was unconscious due to a drug overdose or because he was drunk. He shook the eighteen-year old and found him to be conscious. The Long Island employee told him that he will move him to a more lighted area so that he can help him. The eighteen-year old protested, asking the employee not to touch him or to move him as his spine may be broken. The eighteen-year old protested continuously but the employee did not heed his protests, he dragged the eighteen-year old near the entrance of the building. He then called emergency services who rushed the eighteen-year old to the hospital. When the police and emergency services arrived, the employee told the police that he moved the eighteen year old because he thought that he was just passed out because he was drunk or overdosed from drugs. He had no idea he was injured. The incident resulted in the eighteen-year old being disabled due to quadriplegia or paralyzed from the neck down.

The eighteen-year old then sued the apartment owner and his insurer. He did not include in the suit the employee of the apartment owner. He wanted to call him as an adverse witness because the employee made inconsistent statements before the police (at the time of the incident) and then when he was deposed (before the trial) which testimonies and statements totally contradicted his testimony at trial. The trial court refused the eighteen year old’s request to call the employee as an adverse witness. The trial court held that there was a question as to whether the employee was really employed by the apartment owner; the trial court also held that the employee could not be called as an adverse witness because he was not a party to the case or listed as a party defendant in the damage suit.

The apartment owner and the insurer based their defense on the Good Samaritan Act. They claim that the employee was immune from a suit in damages because he was only trying to help. Under Florida Law, bystanders who help those who were injured cannot be sued for damages if the person they aided suffered injury in the course of being rescued or aided. They also claimed that even if they were found to be liable the amount of lost earning capacity of the eighteen year old cannot be determined because the eighteen-year old was a career criminal who had no real job or job prospects as he dealt in drugs and petit larceny,

Published on: November 7, 2012

A independent building and construction contractor was working for a construction corporation

by Stephen Bilkis

A independent building and construction contractor was working for a construction corporation in a project in Panama City on September 3, 1985. He was at the office working on some paper work. While he was seated at his desk, he reached out to his left to a cubby hole near his desk for some more blueprints. As he reached for the blueprints he turned in his seat. He twisted his trunk and he could not move: hand outstretched, trunk twisted to the left in his seat. He remained there until his wife found him forty-five minutes later. An ambulance was called to rush the independent contractor to the hospital.

His wife took him to the emergency room where he was diagnosed to be suffering from paralysis from the neck down. CT scans were performed on him in Panama City and he was diagnosed with sudden quadriparesis (weakness in the muscles of the four limbs) of unknown origin. The doctor in Panama City opined that his injury was vascular in origin and it must have been a pre-existing vascular anomaly.

The Panamanian construction company, his employer, paid for his medical bills and paid for temporary partial disability benefits. When the man returned for further diagnoses and treatment in the United States, he consulted his general physician, the one he had been seeing for most of his adult life. His general physician referred him to a neurosurgeon who conducted more tests on him. His American doctor found that what happened to the independent contractor was spinal contusion. As the man turned and reached for the blueprints while he was seated, his spine was twisted out of shape and there was a momentary loss of blood supply to his spine. The momentary loss of blood supply to the spine resulted in lack of oxygen and thus, paralysis. The vascular disability resulted from the blood supply loss and the oxygen deprivation of the spine.

Published on: November 5, 2012

An eighteen-year old resident of an apartment building was walking along the grounds

by Stephen Bilkis

A NYC eighteen-year old resident of an apartment building was walking along the grounds of the apartment building in Florida when he met an accident. He lay on the concrete pavement, unable to move because of a spinal injury. A few minutes later, an employee of the apartment owner was making his rounds of the apartment. He saw the eighteen- year old sprawled on the pavement and thought that he was unconscious due to a drug overdose or because he was drunk. He shook the eighteen-year old and found him to be conscious. The employee told him that he will move him to a more lighted area so that he can help him. The eighteen-year old protested, asking the employee not to touch him or to move him as his spine may be broken. The eighteen-year old protested continuously but the employee did not heed his protests, he dragged the eighteen-year old near the entrance of the building. He then called emergency services who rushed the eighteen-year old to the hospital. When the police and emergency services arrived, the employee told the police that he moved the eighteen year old because he thought that he was just passed out because he was drunk or overdosed from drugs. He had no idea he was injured. The incident resulted in the eighteen-year old being disabled due to quadriplegia or paralyzed from the neck down.

The eighteen-year old then sued the Westchester apartment owner and his insurer. He did not include in the suit the employee of the apartment owner. He wanted to call him as an adverse witness because the employee made inconsistent statements before the police (at the time of the incident) and then when he was deposed (before the trial) which testimonies and statements totally contradicted his testimony at trial. The trial court refused the eighteen year old’s request to call the employee as an adverse witness. The trial court held that there was a question as to whether the employee was really employed by the apartment owner; the trial court also held that the employee could not be called as an adverse witness because he was not a party to the case or listed as a party defendant in the damage suit.

The apartment owner and the insurer based their defense on the Good Samaritan Act. They claim that the employee was immune from a suit in damages because he was only trying to help. Under Florida Law, bystanders who help those who were injured cannot be sued for damages if the person they aided suffered injury in the course of being rescued or aided. They also claimed that even if they were found to be liable the amount of lost earning capacity of the eighteen year old cannot be determined because the eighteen-year old was a career criminal who had no real job or job prospects as he dealt in drugs and petit larceny.

Published on: October 30, 2012

In a hybrid proceeding pursuant to Civil Procedure Laws and Rules

by Stephen Bilkis

In a hybrid proceeding pursuant to Civil Procedure Laws and Rules, to review a determination of the State Health Department Commissioner and the Bureau of Financial Management and Information Support Director, which reduced a component of the petitioner’s Medicaid reimbursement rate following an audit, and an action for a judgment declaring that the guideline of the State Health Department for designating a diagnosis of quadriplegia (spinal injury that paralyze the four limbs) on a patient review instrument is invalid, the nursing home appeals from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, as failed to annul that portion of the determination which found that the petitioner had misclassified two of its residents in the special care group, failed to direct that the State Health Department permit the nursing home to submit the revised patient review instruments for certain of its residents, and declared that the challenged guideline does not constitute a rule or regulation subject to the provisions of the State Administrative Procedure Act, and the Commissioner and the Director cross-appeal from so much of the same judgment as annulled that portion of the determination which reclassified the two residents in the reduced physical functioning group and remitted the matter to the State Health Department to reclassify the two residents in the clinically complex group and to calculate the petitioner’s Medicaid reimbursement rate for the period covered by its patient review instruments accordingly.

The petitioner is a not-for-profit corporation owned by the United Cerebral Palsy Association which operates a 185-bed nursing home in Nassau County.

As part of the Medicaid reimbursement rate calculation, Patient Review Instruments are completed semiannually for each patient in the nursing home. Patient Review Instruments require detailed information assessing patients’ conditions, treatment, and dependencies and required care, needs, and services. These Patient Review Instruments place patients into 16 patient classification categories or resource utilization groups, corresponding roughly to the severity of the patients’ medical conditions and the intensity of the required care. The categories are further divided into five hierarchical groups which, in descending order of resource utilization, are heavy rehabilitation, special care, clinically complex, severe behavioral, and reduced physical functioning. Each category is assigned a numerical value, which reflects the relative resource utilization of patients in that group. The patient’s Case Mix Index of a nursing home is the weighted average of its patients in each category. Thus, the greater the resource utilization is the greater the associated Case Mix Index, and therefore the greater the reimbursement.

Published on: May 23, 2012

$7.6 Million Spinal Injury Awarded to Teen Paralyzed by Radiation Maltreatment

by Stephen Bilkis

A teenager’s spinal cordwas destroyed in 1978 after she received a lethal dose of radiation at a hospital she was receiving cancer treatment from. She was awarded $7.6 million by a jury.

Some believed at the time that it was the single, largest payment awarded in a malpractice suit in the U.S.

After the trial, the 18-year-old said that the jury was full of “wonderful people and now I have a chance for my life.”

Published on: May 19, 2012

Preventing Spinal Injury in Others

by Stephen Bilkis

Investigators have learned of a man who dived under a wave while bodysurfing at Mooloolaba Beach in 2005, with full control of his limbs. When he came up again, he was a quadriplegic.

The victim had a weakened neck from years of playing rugby union. In fact, his doctors had already given him warnings only weeks before his accident that he had to stop playing rugby or risk permanent spinal injury. His accidental head-first collision with a sandbar hidden under the waves was the final blow that injured his spinal cord.

The 35-year-old can now only move his face and shoulders. To get around, he has a wheelchair he can control with his chin. Firms have discovered that even now, he is doing something important with the injuries he has suffered. Now, he is a member of the Spinal Education Awareness Team, or SEAT, speaking for the Spinal Injuries Association with offices in Manhattan as well as Long Island.

Published on: June 22, 2011

a college student was paralyzed from the neck down.

by Stephen Bilkis

In an accident at Disney World in 183, a college student was paralyzed from the neck down. The young man (at the time) was set up to receive up to $42 million over the next 51 years in accordance with an out-of-court settlement reached with the family entertainment institution.

The 21-year-old senior music major from Mississippi Valley State College was reported as saying, “It came out more than I expected.”

The trombone player and other students from around the country were rehearsing for the opening ceremonies performance when a platform fell on him. The impact broke his neck and spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic.

Published on: June 2, 2011

Father in Dallas Receives Life Sentence for Paralyzing Baby

by Stephen Bilkis

On the day the jury made the decision to convict a Dallas father for child abuse, the two-year-old boy was brought in. The jury was asked to meet the victim, who had been so badly abused that he was blind, deaf, and paralyzed. Jurors wept and the father accused of the crime could not even look at the boy.

The 26-year-old father did not watch while the nurse showed the jurors how the boy lived since his father severed the boy’s spinal cord in December 2008. It took the jury only 30 minutes before they sentenced the father to life in prison.

“I looked at him a lot – no remorse,” one juror told an NY City Spinal Injury Lawyer. “The evidence showed it was all about him.”