NY’s Westchester Medical Center Ordered To Pay $2.2M To Quadriplegic For Hospital Injury

New York’s Westchester Medical Center (WMC) was ordered to pay $2.2 million in medical malpractice damages to a patient who developed stage four bedsores while recuperating from a serious car accident that left him a quadriplegic.

New York Medical Malpractice

This Westchester New York medical malpractice involves a man whose luck went from bad to worse over the course of six weeks. According to news reports, Eric Trainor, a 30 year old construction worker, was traveling to a job site in November of 2005 when his car hit a patch of ice and crashed – leaving him with a serious spinal cord injury. He was taken to WMC where he was diagnosed a quadriplegic. If that wasn’t bad enough, what happened next was simply unthinkable.

He stayed at WMC for six weeks to recuperate and hospital staff were supposed to turn him ever two hours. However, the staff never did and he developed stage four bedsores that had to be surgically closed as the skin on his lower back and buttocks had separated right down to the bone. Since he couldn’t feel anything, he never knew the bedsores had materialized, but hospital staff should have discovered them.

He hired a New York medical malpractice lawyer alleging that the hospital’s actions were medically negligent and hindered his recovery. A jury agreed and awarded him $2.2 million in damages for pain and suffering. That money will be used to purchase a motorized wheelchair, a specialized van and provide for his three young children.

NY med mal verdicts and settlements

New York medical malpractice verdicts and settlements can be substantial depending on the facts and circumstances of the lawsuit. Here’s a few examples of recent verdicts and settlements:

• $19.2M Bronx medical malpractice verdict. A Bronx man was awarded $19.2 million after doctors at Montefiore Medical Center failed to diagnose a spinal cord infection which led to permanent paralysis.
• $10.7M Queens medical malpractice verdict. A Queens woman was awarded $10.7 million after Queens Hospital left her waiting in an emergency room for over two hours with a fractured skull.
• $60M Bronx medical malpractice verdict. A Bronx woman was awarded $60 million for a botched plastic surgery operation after her doctor failed to use proper surgical techniques which left her deformed and unable to have the problem surgically corrected.