Wrongful Death of Wheelchair-Bound Passenger in Medical Transportation Van
Montgomery County
Bux-Mont Transportation, hired to safely deliver a wheelchair-bound passenger to dialysis treatment, failed to secure the wheelchair. When the Bux-Mont bus accelerated forward from a stop sign, the wheelchair fell backward causing our client to strike the back of his head on the bus floor. As our client moaned in pain that his head hurt, the driver lifted the wheelchair and passenger back into place, without securing his head and neck.
The Bux-Mont driver continued to the dialysis center and then dropped our client off without reporting the incident to his employer or the dialysis center.
Because it was clear that the passenger was injured, a nurse contacted 911 to summon an ambulance. By then, 33 minutes had passed since the injury.
The passenger, our client, was 89 years old and had been suffering from end-stage renal disease for years. He also had a pre-existing cervical spine fracture but he was not wearing his prescribed cervical collar. The cervical spine MRI study at the hospital showed an aggravation injury to the spine, a vertebral artery dissection, and a phrenic nerve injury causing respiratory failure. He died four days later of complications from the neck injury.
Bux-Mont had offered No Training to its drivers on how to handle passengers suffering a head or neck injury. If the driver had simply left our client on the floor of the van called 911 and not moved him, the aggravating injury that caused death could have been avoided.
This case settled for $900,000. As part of the settlement, Baratta Law made Bux-Mont Transportation Inc. agree to adopt a training policy that requires new driver training to not move a passenger with a head or neck injury and to contact 911.
