Crash victim awarded $2.2M for bedsores from hospital stay

A jury has ordered Westchester Medical Center to pay $2.2 million to a quadriplegic man who got horrific bedsores while staying at the Valhalla hospital after a car crash in 2005.

Eric Trainor, a 30-year-old former construction worker from Putnam County, was awarded the amount last month for pain and suffering, following a civil trial in state Supreme Court in White Plains.

His lawyer, Raymond Keegan, said the hospital's failure to turn Trainor every two hours during his six-week stay - and the failure of Dr. Francis Baccay to ensure that care - caused Trainor to develop "stage four" bedsores on his buttocks and lower back.

"They were all the way down to the bone," Keegan said. "They were huge."

Kara Bennorth, a hospital spokeswoman, said in a statement that "Westchester Medical Center does not comment on litigation."

Trainor, who now lives in Springfield, Mass., with his parents, suffered for years from the bedsores, which had to be surgically closed.

The sores delayed his physical rehabilitation so much that he lost the chance to build upper-body strength, Keegan said.

Trainor was riding to a construction job with another contractor when their car skidded on ice and crashed in Dutchess County on Nov. 23, 2005.

He was taken to Westchester Medical Center with a spinal cord injury; he could move his head, neck and shoulders, but little else. Because of the injury, Keegan said, he couldn't feel the bedsores developing.

Keegan said the money would help provide for Trainor's three young children, replace his battery-powered wheelchair and allow him to buy a special van.

The jury granted the award following a seven-day trial.

Source: http://www.lohud.com/article/20091005/NEWS...m-hospital-stay

Where can I get info on this classification system? I'm still dealing with bed sores more than 2 years after the fact and at one point the sacrel ones were down to the bone.

Here you go: http://www.apparelyzed.com/pressuresores.html

Simon

Tanks boss. Maybe I need to get ahold of that lawyer, cus mine sure is useless

I got a stage 3 in the hopital, but we have some kind of time frame in which to file a claim. Something like 3 years I think.

Also I got it while being stabilized before surgery. They thought weights might somehow stretch my discs back in place somewhat, making surgery a little less invasive. IDK . . . . doctors!

That ain't a whole lotta money. He should have gotten more.

E

My lawyers only going after $150 000 and he doesn't expect to get it, then take a huge chunk for himself. Was sure nice of him to sit on his ass for 6 months till there was only a week to file and then get pissy with me cus he canceled every meeting we tried to set up.

Try paying TWO lawyers!

The 1st lawyer DIED in the middle of all the legal crap so I ended up having to pay what the 1st lawyer would have gotten out of it to his estate/widow which was of course AFTER the lawyer who finished up the case got his chunk. By the time 2 lawyers had been paid AND all the medical expenses......I really didn't have all that much.

If you want to get a good law suite........be a little old lady, go to McDonald's & stick a cup of hot coffee between your legs & drive off......then when you hit the brakes & spill boiling hot coffee all over your you can get butt loads of $$$$!!!

Stupidity gets you more money than being a victim . . .