What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
In Sept of 03 my family and I were asked to have a booth at a festival in a park in Monterey. While we were setting up the booth in the park, our children were playing near the waters edge nearby in an area where there were paths, rocks to sit on, etc. We heard a scream, and ran to find that a large boulder had come off of it's placement and fallen on the children. My youngest, then 3 (oldest had been watching her, he was 11), had suffered a crushed leg/foot and hand that left her permanently disabled.
We obtained a lawyer and sued the city and state. We were told right out that it would be a diificult case, if not impossible, because there was a statute (?) that said that as long as the person who signed off on the blue-prints for the park that the accident occurred in had the education to do so, the city and state could not be held liable. During the court battles, the city changed the park so that all of the boulders were cemented in and put up a fence.
We lost the case, appealed and lost that. Occasionally, like today, I look back and wonder if there wasn't more we could have done. It is nearly impossible to get her covered by insurance and she needs more surgeries. She requires special shoes and has difficulty writing (her hand was crushed as well). She has chronic pain. Her foot and hand are deformed.
This is my question: Initially, my daughter was seen at a local hospital prior to be transferred to stanford hospital (I made all of the arrangements and demanded that she be transferred). For nearly two days, she was wrapped in a cast that did not allow for the blood to flow and the local hospital was going to amputate. It was my beleif then, and is now that had the hospital admitted that they could not treat and transferred her immediately, her outcome would have been better. As it was, so much debridement had to be done that she lost most of her foot. The lawyers told me to concentrate on the suit against the city/state because medical lawsuits were just too difficult to prove. Is it too late to do anything? Would it even be worth it? I just feel like she should have gotten some sort of compensation for all she went through and I don't want to keep wondering if there is more we could have done.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. I do have access to the appeals judgement as it is available online. For the rest, I must go by memory because none of the paperwork from the lawsuit was ever given to us.
I just want to know that we did everything that we could, and if possible, make it so that she can have the future surgeries that she needs. Currently, we cannot get her covered and have no idea how we are going to make them happen.
In Sept of 03 my family and I were asked to have a booth at a festival in a park in Monterey. While we were setting up the booth in the park, our children were playing near the waters edge nearby in an area where there were paths, rocks to sit on, etc. We heard a scream, and ran to find that a large boulder had come off of it's placement and fallen on the children. My youngest, then 3 (oldest had been watching her, he was 11), had suffered a crushed leg/foot and hand that left her permanently disabled.
We obtained a lawyer and sued the city and state. We were told right out that it would be a diificult case, if not impossible, because there was a statute (?) that said that as long as the person who signed off on the blue-prints for the park that the accident occurred in had the education to do so, the city and state could not be held liable. During the court battles, the city changed the park so that all of the boulders were cemented in and put up a fence.
We lost the case, appealed and lost that. Occasionally, like today, I look back and wonder if there wasn't more we could have done. It is nearly impossible to get her covered by insurance and she needs more surgeries. She requires special shoes and has difficulty writing (her hand was crushed as well). She has chronic pain. Her foot and hand are deformed.
This is my question: Initially, my daughter was seen at a local hospital prior to be transferred to stanford hospital (I made all of the arrangements and demanded that she be transferred). For nearly two days, she was wrapped in a cast that did not allow for the blood to flow and the local hospital was going to amputate. It was my beleif then, and is now that had the hospital admitted that they could not treat and transferred her immediately, her outcome would have been better. As it was, so much debridement had to be done that she lost most of her foot. The lawyers told me to concentrate on the suit against the city/state because medical lawsuits were just too difficult to prove. Is it too late to do anything? Would it even be worth it? I just feel like she should have gotten some sort of compensation for all she went through and I don't want to keep wondering if there is more we could have done.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. I do have access to the appeals judgement as it is available online. For the rest, I must go by memory because none of the paperwork from the lawsuit was ever given to us.
I just want to know that we did everything that we could, and if possible, make it so that she can have the future surgeries that she needs. Currently, we cannot get her covered and have no idea how we are going to make them happen.