F&F# A09145
Closed Head Injuries, Skull Base Fractures
Settlement: $1,425,000
Injuries: Closed Head Injuries, Skull Base Fractures
Facts and Claim of Liability:
On June 16, 2009, plaintiff was a pedestrian crossing the street at Hillside Avenue and 215th Place in Queens Village, New York when he was hit by an oncoming Mack truck owned by Citywide Demolition and driven by defendant driver. Plaintiff was thrown approximately 15 to 20 feet from the point of impact. EMTs who arrived at the scene determined that plaintiff had suffered closed head injuries and a severe fracture at the base of his skull. He was transported to North Shore University Hospital via ambulance and remained in the hospital for weeks, where he underwent a variety of surgeries for brain injury and skull base fractures (including a craniectomy with evacuation of a blood clot on June 16). He endured a complex hospital course with a prolonged Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stay.
Plaintiff was not able to return to work for months, until September.
Currently, plaintiff has multiple scars along the left skull in the parietal region. He also has irritative cellulitis of the pinna in a dependent distribution, as well as residual left ear drainage, which doctors suspect is due to either a persistent otitis media or a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak.
Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald filed suit in Kings County Supreme Court and successfully secured a settlement for $1,425,000.00.