A girl who suffered serious head injury- just for waiting for the ambulance- won $172 million judgment against New York City on Wednesday. The lawyer for the girl’s family Thomas A. Moore said that “it was the biggest reward in the history of New York city”.
Besides, the chief of the tort division in the Law Department, Fay Leoussis said that “we would go against the decision and file for appeal, the verdict was not consistent with the law”. City officials said that “we are hopeful that the appellate court will reduce the award and the decision will be according the law”.
According to the “Special duty doctrine”, the city cannot be held responsible unless the person- facing the difficulty- is not promised to be helped on telephone. It goes without saying that the family had sued Accuhealth Inc and the nurse for wrongly treating 12 years old Tiffany Applewhite.
The mother of Tiffany made a call to 911 for the help and the city sent two unequipped ambulances to treat the patient. She cried out for the help but the city officials requested her to wait until private ambulance arrives. When the private ambulance arrived after 12 minutes, the patient was already paralyzed, the evidence showed.
Lastly, Mr. Moore said that the jury has finally settled the case after 16 years of her client. He further opined that “it was quite clear in the beginning that the case was clearly indefensible”.
