GWC Secures $23.5 Million Settlement for Family of Surveyor Killed When Scaffold Collapsed at UChicago Cancer Pavilion Site

On June 6, 2024, David O'Donnell, a 27-year-old technical surveyor, was working on nine-story scaffolding at the University of Chicago Medical Center Cancer Pavilion construction site in Hyde Park when wind gusts reached 44 mph. The scaffold had been designed to withstand winds well above that speed, but the structure failed and swung away from the building at the southwest corner. O'Donnell fell approximately 140 feet and died at the scene. A second worker, ironworker Jeffrey Spyrka, also fell and survived with critical injuries.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of O'Donnell's family named Turner Construction, the general contractor, and Adjustable Forms (also identified in some filings as Adjustable Concrete Construction), the scaffolding subcontractor. The complaint alleged that neither company properly anchored the scaffold to the building. Investigators found a 3-foot gap at the scaffold's corner bridged only by a 4-foot piece of plywood fastened with three nails. Workers had reported concerns about the scaffolding's stability earlier in the week, and those warnings went unaddressed.

Louis Anthony Cairo of GWC Injury Lawyers represented O'Donnell's estate. Cairo argued the collapse was entirely preventable: the scaffold's design called for secure corner connections that would have resisted the kind of lateral force the wind produced that morning, but shortcuts in materials and anchoring left the structure unable to stay fixed to the building under conditions far below its rated wind tolerance.

After approximately nine hours of settlement negotiations, the parties reached agreement on June 6, 2025, exactly one year after O'Donnell's death. Judge Budzinski oversaw the facilitation. The $23.5 million settlement between Turner Construction, Adjustable Forms, and O'Donnell's family still required court approval at the time of the announcement.

Litigation stemming from the same collapse continues. Spyrka and nine other workers who were injured that day have separate pending cases in Cook County.