$10.7 Million Verdict for Queens Woman Left Paralyzed After Two-Hour ER Delay

In September 2004, Candida Diego fell down a flight of stairs at work and fractured her skull. She was brought to the emergency room at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, a level-one trauma center, where staff cleared her for a CT scan to check for brain bleeding. The scan was not performed for more than two hours.

By the time imaging was completed, the scan revealed uncal herniation, a dangerous condition in which brain tissue compresses the brainstem. Less than an hour after the scan, Diego lapsed into a coma in the ER and required resuscitation. Emergency neurosurgery to evacuate the hematoma was not performed until more than four hours after she first arrived, by which point severe neurological damage had already occurred.

Diego survived but was left with no movement on her left side and requires a wheelchair for mobility. Her husband Roberto Diego also asserted a loss-of-services claim. The defense argued that Diego's paralysis would have occurred regardless of the timing of the scan, contending the outcome was inevitable given the severity of the injury.

Philip Russotti of Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin rejected that argument at trial, presenting evidence that prompt imaging and surgery at a facility holding level-one trauma designation could have prevented the permanent neurological damage. 'They are a level one trauma center, the highest,' Russotti said after the verdict. 'They did not respond like a level one trauma center should.'

On October 3, 2008, the Queens County jury returned a verdict of $10.7 million against the hospital, covering past and future pain and suffering and past and future loss of services. The Associated Press reported the verdict on October 13, 2008, and Lawyers USA covered the case in its October 22, 2008 edition, quoting Russotti as saying the hospital 'forgot about this woman.'