Slip and Fall Injury

Published on: March 2, 2013

Woman slips as she leaves a bus

by Stephen Bilkis

A woman took the bus. As she was about to go down from the bus, while walking down the aisle toward the exit, she slipped on something slippery on the floor. She had a slip and fallwhich landed her on her bottom. She sustained spinal injury, specifically in her lumbar spine and cervical spine.

The Staten Island woman sued the transit authority which operated the bus along with the city government which owned the bus. After the depositions were taken and discovery was closed, the transit authority filed a motion for summary procedure asking that the woman’s complaint be dismissed for failure to show that she sustained a serious injury.

The woman opposed the motion for summary judgment arguing that this is not the usual motor vehicle accident and that she was not suing merely under a “no fault” law. She claims to have raised issues of negligence. She claims that the transit authority and the city government did not exercise reasonable care in keeping the buses safe for passengers and clean enough so that passengers would avoid a slip and fall while riding on the bus.

Published on: February 19, 2013

A fifty-three year old medical secretary had been working at a hospital for a number of years

by Stephen Bilkis

A fifty-three year old Nassau medical secretary had been working at a hospital for a number of years when on December 29, 1967 she slipped on a door sill. The medical secretary fractured her left hip. A nail and a pin were used to repair the medical secretary’s hip. She was confined to bed at a nursing home for six months. The medical secretary filed a claim for permanent total disability benefits. After her surgery, a neurologist examined the medical secretary and found that she was also suffering from a spinal degenerative process and that around thirty to fifty per cent of her condition was related to the degenerative disease instead of to the accident.

For this cause, the employer refused to pay the permanent total disability benefits after six months. The employer claims to have paid for her medical care until maximum medical improvement had been reached. After the sixth month, the total disability of the medical secretary was no longer due to the accident at work but it was due to the pr-existing spinal disease.

At the trial, the Suffolk doctor to whom the medical secretary was assigned testified that the medical secretary had worked for him for years. And he had been largely satisfied with the medical secretary’s work performance. However, he had noticed that the medical secretary’s health has been consistently and continuously deteriorating. She had lost a lot of weight and appeared severely malnourished. She had difficulty walking and often, she had to brace herself because she was unsteady on her feet. The doctor testified that had the medical secretary not injured herself, he would have asked her to resign. Her work has deteriorated just before the accident. If the medical secretary applied for a job on the day of his accident, he would not have hired her. He thought that the woman’s severe malnutrition could also be the reason why a slip resulted in a severe fracture.

Published on: February 16, 2013

On 7 March 1991 and on 14 June 1991, the Family Court of New York County

by Stephen Bilkis

First Case:

On 7 March 1991 and on 14 June 1991, the Family Court of New York County made a finding of neglect against the subject parents and ordered a year of minimal supervision by the Child Welfare Administration, respectively. An appeal from the order followed.

The court finds that the orders must be are affirmed, without costs.

Published on: February 12, 2013

The plaintiff sustained serious and catastrophic injuries

by Stephen Bilkis

The plaintiff sustained serious and catastrophic injuries when he fell while traversing a trench at a construction site in the Bronx. As a result of plaintiff’s fall into a trench at the job site he became impaled on a reinforcement bar (rebar) that was surgically removed several hours after his admission to the hospital. It is in this setting that the jury, after a trial and after hearing testimony from plaintiff’s physicians and other experts regarding the devastating and traumatic nature of the personal injuries he sustained, rendered a verdict in the sum of $86 million including $20 million for past pain and suffering and $55 million for future pain and suffering.

A Lawyer said that, plaintiff’s treating physician, the Director of Spinal Cord Services at Helen Hayes Hospital, described in explicit detail the nature and effect of the spinal injuries plaintiff incurred. The Doctor provided the court and jury, inter alia, with a graphic picture of plaintiff’s suffering, stating in part, that the pain plaintiff continues to experience “is of two types. He has nerve pain in his legs, and that nerve pain is perhaps one of the worst pains that you could think of. Imagine somebody stabbing you with a knife, a gazillion times, or with a pin all over the place. That numbness, that tingling, that stabbing sensation” is “present all the time, but it is a constant pain and that pain will not go away.” He depicted plaintiff’s chronic pain by providing the jury with a vivid description of the damage to plaintiff’s spinal column when the rebar went into the area of his spinal cord and the compression fracture also caused by the pipe entering his body. He described the emotional pain sustained by the plaintiff caused by the distress of no longer having the ability to walk and the nerve pain emanating from his legs which he testified was permanent. The jury also heard testimony regarding plaintiff’s chronic bed sores, his cauterization in order to urinate, his inability to control bowel movements, constant urinary tract infections and repeated hospitalization for the conditions described by the Brooklyn Doctor.

A Lawyer said that, the defendant moves pursuant to CPLR §4404 and §5501, to reduce the damages awarded to the plaintiff, after a jury trial, contending that the award is excessive and materially deviates from fair and reasonable compensation.

Published on: January 27, 2013

MD2 seeks an order granting summary judgment dismissing the complaint

by Stephen Bilkis

The Manhattan plaintiff alleges that on or about November 29, 2001 through December 13, 2001 he came under the medical care and treatment of MD, a physician specializing in the field of transplant surgery. On or about May 2001 through June 13, 2002, the plaintiff came under the care of MD2., a physician specializing in the field of internal medicine. He also came under the care of the defendant MD3, M.D. who holds himself out as a Long Island physician specializing in surgery. From about November 28, 2001 through December 13, 2001, the plaintiff came under the care of a Memorial Hospital located in Rochester, New York where he had his kidney donor surgery performed. The plaintiff claims, inter alia, that the defendants were negligent in his care and treatment in failing to properly perform a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy; prematurely discharging him after the surgery with a retroperitoneal hematoma; causing the pancreas injury and failure; causing an inflammatory nidus and pancreatic pseudocyst; in causing a pancreaticocolenic fistula; causing the plaintiff to undergo exploratory laporatomy and drainage of a large intra abdominal abscess and closure of a colonic fistula, and causing the plaintiff to undergo a colosotomy and colostomy take-down surgical procedure to the pancreas.

MD2 seeks an order granting summary judgment dismissing the complaint asserted against him on the basis that he did not depart from good and accepted medical practice during his care and treatment of the plaintiff and that the action is time barred as although the plaintiff saw MD2 on four occasions following his surgery, all MD2 did was order laboratory tests and CT scans and then refer the plaintiff for surgical management. MD2 claims his last involvement with the plaintiff was on January 2002 and the action was not commenced until September 2004.

MD3, who is represented by the same attorneys as MD2 seeks summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the basis that there were no departures by him that proximately caused the plaintiffs spinal injuries.

Published on: January 2, 2013

A complainant man, age 37, was admitted to a hospital

by Stephen Bilkis

A complainant man, age 37, was admitted to a hospital, after having suffered a gunshot wound to his neck. He was treated by a general surgeon and a neurosurgeon. During the first few days of treatment, the Bronx general surgeon formed an opinion that the man would be a permanent paraplegic. The neurosurgeon was also of the opinion that the man’s spinal column had suffered such severe damage and that eventual spasms in his extremities would be inevitable. However, the neurosurgeon noted in the hospital records that the man apparently had a sensation to his feet.

Subsequently, while the man was in an intensive care unit, nurses at the hospital placed him on a special bed used to allow immobilized patients to be rotated to a vertical position. The nurse who was responsible for checking out the bed failed to check on the position of an essential bolt, and as the bed was rotated the man fell. There was conflict in the testimony as to injuries caused by the fall. The man claimed that he struck his back on a chair, while the nurse testified that she caught the man prior to the time he struck to anything. After the incident, the man was examined by another physician, who noted that the patient had not sustained any injury when a section of the bed had almost fallen down. The man testified, however, that his pain intensified after the fall and that it was only after the fall that he had begun to suffer spasms. The man was discharged from the hospital and after which, he was a patient in various other Westchester hospitals. He undergone several operations, but he remains paralyzed.

A pathologist testified as an expert witness for the man. It was his opinion that the fall striking the mid portion of the man’s back in the area through which the bullet had passed had caused some degree of neurological and spinal injury, which in turn caused additional injury to the wound site. Even if the pathologist could not assess any particular degree of aggravation caused to the already existing damage, he did testify that the man’s fall from the bed injured him to some additional degree.

Published on: December 25, 2012

This complaint sets forth a first cause of an action sounding in negligence

by Stephen Bilkis

This complaint sets forth a first cause of an action sounding in negligence arising out of the care and treatment rendered to plaintiff wherein she sustained second degree burns to her feet while bathing in a tub on October 10, 2004 while a resident at Siena Village, owned by the a health system of Long Island, Inc. and located at Smithtown, New York. The defendant, was an employee of the facility and the personal care aide for the plaintiff when the spinal injury occurred. The plaintiff resided at Siena Village where she received custodial care and housing. The second cause of action is premised upon the alleged negligent hiring of defendant employee by the defendant health System of Long Island, Inc.

In the answer submitted by defendant employee, a cross-claim has been asserted against the co-defendant health System of Long Island, Inc. for indemnification and/or contribution. In the answer submitted by the health system, a cross-claim has been asserted for judgment over against “Kenneth Doe” who is not named in the complaint, and a second cross-claim for indemnification from defendant employee.

According to the court, the common-law right to indemnification exists pursuant to a contract implied in law and is rooted in equity; it is a device to prevent unjust enrichment. Implied indemnity is frequently employed in favor of one who is vicariously liable for the tort of another, but the principle is not so limited and has been invoked in other contexts as well. Nonetheless, an indemnity cause of action can be sustained only if the third-party plaintiff and the third-party defendant have breached a duty to plaintiff and also if some duty to indemnify exists between them”.

Published on: November 17, 2012

A man was working as a construction worker on June 24, 1983.

by Stephen Bilkis

A man was working as a construction worker on June 24, 1983. He was on the tenth floor of a building. He lost his balance while at that height. He fell and hit a concrete floor below. He injured his head and he lost all sensation in both his arms. His Nassau-Suffolk employer paid him temporary total disability until March 15, 1984. After this, his employer paid him temporary partial disability benefits. The construction worker filed a claim for catastrophic loss benefits. When he recovered from the head injury, the construction worker still had no feeling in both his arms. He could not move his arms or do his customary work as a construction worker.

Two months after the accident the construction worker consulted a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon found that the reason for the numbness in his arms is that he had a spinal cord injury. The bones of his spine were compressing on his nerves causing the loss of sensation to his two arms. The neurosurgeon performed two surgeries in September and October 1983 to correct the compression. He removed the bone which was causing the compression on his spinal cord. He did not touch or repair the nerves, just the bone. After the surgeries, the man gained strength in his arms but three fingers on each hand still did not have any feeling. He was able to do simple and light chores at home but he was unable to continue with his work as a construction worker.

Four months after the surgery, the man was still experiencing pain, tingling, numbness and weakness in his fingers and hands. The neurosurgeon determined that these were not due to damage or compression to the nerves but were now only orthopedic in nature. He certified that the construction worker can go back to work but with limits. He cannot do any lifting, or do heavy construction work or work at elevations.

Published on: May 26, 2012

The 1978 case of a white-haired man arrived at the Circuit Court one morning

by Stephen Bilkis

The 1978 case of a white-haired man arrived at the Circuit Court one morning. The man entered the courtroom to testify in his $1 million lawsuit he filed against Edward H. White II Memorial Hospital.

He filed the lawsuit because he fell out of bed while admitted in the facility. The 50-year-old man claimed that the hospital staff was negligent when they left the railing down on his hospital bed. When he fell, he suffered a spinal injury.

The hospital refuted those claims and said that the patient had raised such a ruckus about having it up that they lowered it – against hospital policy – in order to hopefully prevent another coronary episode in the gentleman.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Spinal Injuries Common in Nevada

by Stephen Bilkis

As part of our search for spinal cord injury information, a source has learned that these types of injuries are fairly common in parts of Nevada. One of the local hospitals that treats an increasing number of spinal cord injuriesis at Renown Regional Medical Center, which is located in northern Nevada, and is the areas only trauma center that is comparable to a larger area hospital.

One of the reasons for the number of spinal cord injuries in this area is due to most of these injuries occurring due to skiing accidents and the local businesses do not want the negative publicity that a skiing accident can be so severe. With that being the case, the local news stations do not report the accidents. There are so many skiing related accidents that the doctors who perform spinal surgeries in this area, actually “handle more surgeries per ski lift than anywhere else in the world.” There are reportedly about 60 to 80 spinal cord injuries a year in this area. This is a rather alarming claim by anyone’s standards.

Not all of the injuries are related to skiing, however. At least one person required a spine operation following a snowmobile accident. Most of the spinal cord injuries in this area are snow-related. This would not happen in Long Island or Manhattan.