| Verdicts and Settlements - Boating |
Boswell v. Johnson -- $155,000.00 settlement for boating accident resulting in spinal fracture. At only twenty-three years of age, plaintiff Stephanie Boswell sustained a severe fracture to her back while a guest on defendant's boat. The accident occurred on June 29, 2001, in Lake Havasu, Arizona. On that date, plaintiff and her two friends were invited on defendant's boat. After several hours on the lake and while heading back toward the defendant's vacation home, the boat hit a wake. Consequently, plaintiff was violently thrown into the air while seated in the boat's open bow. Plaintiff fell as if she had been slammed back into the boat, and was unable to feel sensation and was unable to move. Despite requests by plaintiff, defendant, who was a fireman and certified paramedic, failed to seek help. Instead, he conducted his own emergency medical assessment of plaintiff, and drove the boat, without any spinal precautions whatsoever, back to the launch ramp. Defendant's truck was then used to transport plaintiff back to the vacation home, while plaintiff still remained on the floor of the boat, again with no spinal precautions. Defendant then lifted and carried plaintiff over the side of the boat and inside the home, and then once again performed a medical assessment. Defendant's advice to plaintiff was to 'stretch.' After an hour or so in the vacation house, defendant finally agreed that plaintiff needed professional emergency medical intervention. He then lifted her and carried plaintiff once again, and placed her in the passenger seat of her own car, again without any spinal precautions whatsoever. He then drove plaintiff to Needles Hospital, where it was determined that plaintiff had suffered a fractured spine. Plaintiff was then airlifted to University Medical Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at which time she underwent extensive surgery, including but not limited to, open reduction with internal fixation, to repair the spinal fracture. The fracture was at L-2, with 90% intrusion into the spinal canal, with neurological deficit. There was an extended hospitalization, and follow-up care, treatment, and rehabilitation.
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