While durable woven carpets are known for their 20 to 30 year lifespan, a South Beach woman could have spent the next 20 to 30 years in a hospital bed, thanks to her carpet.
According to a recent report from SILive.com, Dana Ferrentino, a Staten Island native, tripped over a raised piece of carpet in her rented two-family home, hitting her head on a bedpost and acquiring serious injuries.
Though her fall happened three years ago, Ferrentino just received compensation, in the amount of $225,000, from her lawsuit against the owners of the home.
Because the doorway of the home didn’t have a saddle to secure the carpeting down, it caused an uneven rift, which Ferrentino then tripped on.
The saddle is a frame that fits along the edge of a room, which the carpeting is then attached to using staples or other fasteners. When the carpet is not properly installed, certain sections can become loose and uneven, causing the carpet to bunch or fold, putting homeowners at risk.
When she hit her head, Ferrentino spent almost two weeks in the hospital and had to undergo surgery for an accumulation of blood on the brain beneath the skull, or a subdural hematoma. Subdural hematomas caused by blunt trauma are the most lethal of all head injuries, and have an extremely high mortality rate if not treated on time.
Ferrentino spent the following three weeks in bed, and sued the homeowners, Safete and Sucurija Perasevic, for allowing dangerous conditions to exist in their home. Ferrentino’s attorney, Michael H. Bush, said that the case was settled prior to trial.
Bush also said that Ferrentino had been living in the home for ten months before the fall, and that she hadn’t reported any issues prior to the carpeting incident.
Ferrentino has since made a full recovery.
