As we look back over the past year, here are a few of the personal injury and wrongful death cases that were resolved by the attorneys of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan, and stand out to us:
On-the-Job Injuries
David Marsh, Jeff Rickard, Dylan Scilabro and Susan Silvernail teamed up to help two young ironworkers who fell twenty feet to the concrete while working on a major construction project in Tuscaloosa. The fall left one with a life-long brain injury, and the second will never walk again due to the injury to his spinal cord. While the general contractor and other parties involved in the construction project wanted to blame our clients for the fall, David took many depositions proving that the fall resulted from a defectively designed column and beam support system.
Medical Malpractice
Ty Brown, Jane Mauzy, and Susan Silvernail represented a Florida woman who suffered a life-changing injury as a patient in a Mobile hopsital. Tragically, our client was correctly diagnosed and treated in a small rural hospital in Alabama after an ATV accident. But when she was transferred to the bigger trauma hospital, things started to go wrong, and she ended up as a quadriplegic. Yet, she inspired all of us with her positive attitude toward life.
Trucking Death
Jeff Rickard, Dylan Marsh, and Susan Silvernail settled a case involving a death and a serious injury to the passengers of an automobile who were struck in their lane of travel by an oncoming 18-wheeler truck. The wreck occurred after the truck’s left front tire blew out and caused the driver to lost control. After investigating, MRB attorneys were able to show not just that the driver was negligent, but that the owner/operator of the truck and the maintenance provider of the truck had not properly maintained and serviced the truck.
Veteran Paralyzed
David Marsh. J.D. Marsh and Susan Silvernail resolved a challenging medical malpractice case against the U.S. government in a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act. MRB attorneys represented an Army veteran who was injured while he was a patient at a Veteran’s Administration hospital. The veteran received a spinal injection that left him permanently paralyzed. MRB attorneys worked out a settlement that will take care of the veteran’s needs for the rest of his life.
Choking Death
Rip Andrews and Ben Ford exposed the lack of supervision at a residential group home for those with severe mental and physical disabilities. Our client was unable to feed himself, or cut his own food and had a history of choking. But this group home never did a choking assessment on him or put any precautions in place for his eating. One day, our client was given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that was not safe for him. He choked, went into cardiac arrest and suffered an irreparable brain injury from the lack of oxygen. He died later at the hospital.
Truck Wreck
Attorney resolved a case for a police officer who was injured in a collision with a logging truck in Talladega. The logging truck crossed in front of the officer’s vehicle as he was approaching an intersection without any traffic signals. Our client suffered extensive orthopedic injuries, including injuries to his leg, both hips, back, foot and knee.
Hospital Burn Injury
Ty Brown, David Marsh, and J.D. Marsh settled a case against a Mobile hospital whose nurses severely burned our client’s foot with a too-hot compress while our client was sedated and unconscious. As a result of the burns, our client underwent eleven surgeries and a partial amputation of her foot. She suffers constant pain in the foot and some things in life, like driving a car, are no longer possible.
Shocking Conduct
David Marsh handled a case in Cullman that involved shocking conduct by a caregiver with an in-home assistance company. An elderly man with vascular dementia, and blindness, required full-time care in his home. Thanks to surveillance cameras set up by the man’s family, we discovered a caregiver watching television while the man wandered around the house, bumping into walls and furniture. He walked into a wall and fell backwards onto a hard floor. While the man was writhing in pain and trying to sit up, the caregiver began taping him with her camera phone. This continued for twenty minutes. The caregiver never got our client medical care he needed or reported the fall to her agency.
Rehab Fall
Jeff Rickard and Ben Ford resolved a case for the family of a patient who fell and died on the day he was supposed to be discharged from a rehabilitation hospital. The man was in the rehab facility for cardiac conditioning but also had diabetes that the facility was supposed to be managing. On the day he was set to go home, a nurse’s aide found that the patient had a critically low blood sugar level. Instead of calling for help from a nearby nurse, the aide left the room, leaving the patient alone. The patient fell to the floor and hit his head, causing a brain bleed. Although he was taken to UAB Hospital, he later died from his head injuries.
Drug Death
David Marsh and J.D. Marsh represented the mother of a healthy, 25-year-old woman who died two weeks after getting a pedicure at a nail salon. MRB attorneys argued that the nail technician improperly cut the young woman’s toes causing them to bleed. One toe became infected and she was prescribed the antibiotic Bactrim by a physician. Unfortunately, she had an adverse reaction to the Bactrim. Her symptoms included chills, fatigue, high fever, back pain, headache and skin rash. The young woman went to see a different physician in her hometown; that physician told her the Bactrim was not causing her problems, gave her more Bactrim and instructed her to keep taking it. She died less than a week later due to Bactrim-induced liver injury.
These recoveries and testimonials are not an indication of future results. Every case is different, and regardless of what friends, family or other individuals may say about what a case is worth, each case must be evaluated on its own facts and circumstances as they apply to the law. The valuation of a case depends on the facts, the injuries, the jurisdiction, the venue, the witnesses, the parties, and the testimony, among other factors. Furthermore, no representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.
