Careless Truck Driver Causes Permanent Leg Injuries in Orlando, Florida
The victim in this personal injury case is a widow who was working as a security officer in Orlando, Florida, when an incident happened that would result in serious and permanent injuries and change her life forever.
As a part of her job, she was required to check and count pallets in the tractor trailers located at her place of employment. Unfortunately, while the victim was on a ladder counting the pallets in one trailer, the driver of the truck did not wait until she was out of the trailer and began backing up, causing her to fall off of the ladder. The Defendant blamed the victim for the accident alleging she should not have been in the truck even though the truck had yet to be sealed. There was no excuse for moving the truck or trailer when the victim was still inside, but the Defendant admitted no fault and continuously blamed the victim.
The victim suffered a severe right knee and ankle injury, and the knee injury resulted in surgery on her right knee for a torn meniscus. She was subsequently diagnosed with blood clots, or DVT’s (deep vein thrombosis).
Actually, the DVT’s are an important issue because of the damage they cause. The development of the DVT’s required hospitalization, and at that time the DVT’s were located via Doppler ultrasound in the right leg in three veins: anterior vein, posterior tibial vein, and peroneal vein.
DVT’s cause permanent damage to the vein. In the normal person there are no blood clots in the veins. Sometimes blood clots can form in the deep veins of the leg. This is known as deep vein thrombosis. The thrombus grows and gets embedded into the vein wall. The blood clot stimulates a myriad of bodily reactions which cause damage to the vein. The body will try to dissolve the clot or some type of drug therapy with blood thinners may be needed to dissolve the blood clot. In time, any vein which has been affected by a blood clot is usually rendered non-functional. The valves are destroyed and the vein usually becomes large and flaccid. The result is a persistently swollen leg and pain. This is known as the post phlebitic (post blood clot) syndrome. This victim was diagnosed with post phlebitic syndrome, which is characterized by leg pain, swelling, itchiness, dryness and eventually skin ulceration as a result of prolonged venous hypertension. Much of the future pain and suffering this victim will experience will be directly related to the DVT issues.
This victim’s medical bills directly related to this incident totaled over $30,000.00 and more likely than not, she will heed a total knee replacement in the future which typically ranges in cost from $15,000.00 to $30,000.00.
Luckily, the victim in this case contacted Attorney William Zoeller who was successful in obtaining a settlement without the necessity of a trial so that she will now be able to get on with her life and should she need the knee replacement in the future she will be able to obtain that surgery.
