Georgia Injury Attorney Blog
This year a jury in a US District Court in DC awarded $2.9 million to the family of a mentally disabled resident, who was deemed to have a neck injury that complicated his health and eventual death in the year 2000 at the age of 68.
According to The Washington Post, breathing difficulties experienced by the man—for which he was hospitalized—was thought to have been complicated by compression in his neck. What troubled the man’s family, and the reason why they sought the services of a neck injury lawyer, was the suspicion that the neck and spinal issue was allegedly known to doctors and others overseeing the care of the man as long as five years before his death. In 1995, the man began to lose the use of his arms and his caregivers suspected neurological issues.
However, it wasn’t until 1997 that a neurologist was consulted, who suggested a spinal compression in the neck—in other words, a neck injury—may have contributed to the man’s difficulties. A subsequent MRI confirmed that hypothesis, and later in 1997, a surgeon suggested a routine (albeit serious) surgical procedure to correct the problem.
The man died in June of 2000.