Broken femur leads to death, $750K settlement

The estate of wheelchair user who died from complications after he broke his femur while being transported in a van has confidentially settled a lawsuit against a transportation company for $750,000, the estate’s attorneys report.

Liz Arias and Johnny Loper of Womble Bond Dickinson in Raleigh, who represented the estate, report that the deceased, a 42-year-old man who had cerebral palsy, was riding in a van owned by a company that specializes in carrying wheelchair-bound people in September 2017. His estate alleged that the van’s driver had used only one strap to secure him in his wheelchair, rather than the required two. When the van stopped abruptly, the man slid under the single belt and fell forward while his feet were still strapped in his wheelchair, the attorneys said.

The man suffered a broken femur, and while he was in the hospital he contracted pneumonia, which led to a high fever. He went into a coma and was in intensive care for several days. When he emerged from the coma, a pre-existing condition called dysphagia that had caused him to periodically aspirate his food into his lungs had apparently become permanent, the attorneys said. Rather than live the remainder of his life with a feeding tube, he decided to enter into hospice care and passed away 25 days after he was hospitalized.

The transportation company suggested that it would concede the femur fracture, but claimed there was no proximate cause between the fracture and the man’s death because the man had voluntarily chosen to refuse a permanent feeding tube, thus ending his life, Arias said.

“We spoke with the decedent’s health care providers, and came back to the insurer with a forecast of trial testimony that we felt would establish a clear and believable line of proximate cause from the accident to the fracture to the pneumonia to the exacerbated dysphagia and ultimately to his death,” she said. “We then made a take-it-or-leave-it-or-we-file-suit offer, and the transportation company and its insurer accepted.”

The money will go toward college funds for young family members and charity, Arias said.

“Our offer was eminently reasonable,” Arias said. “It saved both a tough trial for the family and bad publicity for the company.”

“He was sort of the life of the party and given his limitations, he had a fairly full and productive life,” Loper said. “Most of the enjoyment he got out of his life was his ability to eat and interact with people.”

Follow Bill Cresenzo on Twitter @bcresenzonclw

SETTLEMENT REPORT – WRONGFUL DEATH

Amount: $750,000

Injuries alleged: Broken femur, leading to aspiration pneumonia, leading to dysphagia, leading to death

Case name: Confidential

Court: Wake County Superior Court

Case No.: Withheld 

Date of settlement: May 24

Attorney for plaintiff: Elizabeth Arias and Johnny Loper of Womble Bond Dickinson in Raleigh

Attorney for defendant: Withheld