21 Year Old Suffers Severe Injuries in Martin County, Florida
The holidays should be a joyful time, but on this particular Christmas Eve, the victim in this Florida auto accident case had been to a Christmas party with friends. On the way home, he was one of three passengers riding with his friend in the front of his friend’s pick-up truck. Unfortunately, since there were only three seat belts and four people in the front seat, no one had their seat belts on.
It was a dark night, and the winding road was wet with poor lighting. The driver of the truck lost control, the truck began spinning and flipped. The driver and our victim were ejected from the truck. Our victim was in tremendous pain and had serious trouble breathing and was taken to a trauma center in West Palm Beach, Florida by helicopter. The EMS crew reported that there was extensive damage to the front passenger compartment of the pick-up truck.
Upon physical exam by the trauma surgeon, the victim had a tender, very rigged abdomen. Based on that fact, it was felt that he had life-threatening injuries, and he was taken urgently to the operating room for an exploratory laparotomy so the surgeon could look into the abdomen to identify his injuries.
The victim received an incision from the bottom of his chest bone to just above his pubic bone. During the operation, it was noted that he had blood free in the abdomen, which meant that some organ was bleeding. The surgeon found that his spleen was seriously damaged and bleeding profusely and had to be removed. There was also a laceration to his liver, which was actively bleeding, and the bleeding had to be stopped by electrocautery. Since the spleen had to be removed, the patient now has an increased chance of infection. Post-op, he was on a ventilator, pain management and wound care and remained in a coma for 12 days.
A few days after being released from the hospital, he returned complaining of nausea, vomiting and the inability to eat. He was found to have an infection and had to have a second operation to disinfect the wound.
A couple of months after this second surgery, the victim was readmitted to the hospital with a small bowel obstruction for which he needed an additional surgery. The surgeon stated that this was also as a result of the automobile accident. After all of these hospital stays and surgeries, the victim’s total medical bills were over $377,000.00, and he was left with a horribly disfiguring scar for the remainder of his life.
This victim sought the assistance of Attorney Jason D. Weisser in this matter. Mr. Weisser filed suit against the owner and driver of the vehicle involved in this accident and after a three day trial, the jury returned a verdict of almost $800,000.00. After the trial, Mr. Weisser filed a Motion for Additur and the judge awarded another $50,000.00 to the plaintiff, plus attorney’s fees and costs of more than $50,000.00. This will assure that this victim will now be able to get the medical care he deserves and hopefully he will be able to fend off any illnesses he encounters due to his increased susceptibility to certain types of infections.
