Boating Accident in Palm Beach, Florida Causes Amputation of Fingers
When you plan a fun-filled day of boating, you would never expect to end up losing a portion of your fingers on such an excursion, but that’s exactly what happened to the victim in this case.
The victim in this Florida boating accident was a 28 year old married man who was a karate instructor and owned his own karate studio. He and his wife had very active lives and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle. They were members of an exclusive boating club located in North Palm Beach, Florida where by paying a membership fee, they were allowed the use of a boat whenever they wished.
On this particular fall day, they had secured the use of a 24 foot power boat for the afternoon with a friend of theirs and anchored just off the beach on the north end of Palm Beach Island. The trio had gone ashore to have lunch just before this incident occurred. When the victim was attempting to climb up the dive ladder to get back onto the boat, his fingers got caught at the hinge of the ladder, partially amputating the third and fourth digit of his right hand.
As they were heading back to the marina, luckily the Marine Patrol was nearby and rushed him to Blue Heron Park where he was picked up by Fire Rescue and taken to the emergency room at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Once there, he was taken into surgery immediately. Unfortunately, this victim would require two more surgeries to his fingers and possibly will require more in the future.
Of course, this victim incurred thousands of dollars in medical expenses and worst of all, he lost a large amount of income from his karate studio since he is no longer able to act as an instructor and, in fact, was unable to work at all for quite some time due to the pain he had to contend with on a daily basis.
This victim contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler for assistance in obtaining some compensation for the expenses and pain and suffering he endured due to the negligence of the marina and the fact that the ladder on this boat was faultily constructed. This fact was confirmed by a safety expert retained by Mr. Schuler in this case. After extensive investigation Mr. Schuler was successful in settling this case without the necessity of a trial for several hundred thousand dollars
