Here is a sample of the personal injury and wrongful death cases that were resolved by the lawyers of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan in 2019:
Attorney represented a Heflin man who suffered terrible burn injuries mostly to his legs when his clothing ignited after he came too close to a propane tank top heater. Our client was wearing insulated coveralls in his workshop and didn’t feel the heat until his clothing was on fire. Mike argued that the heater was defective because the wire guard is really no guard at all. In fact, the temperatures at the guard are so high that any contact or near contact will result in immediate burns or ignition of clothing or other materials. The maker of the heater never considered an alternative guard and blamed our client for causing his own injuries.
Ty Brown and J.D. Marsh settled a case for the family of a 29-year-old mother who suffered an anoxic brain injury while under general anesthesia. The young woman was to undergo surgery for a leg injury when the anesthesia equipment had to be changed out. Apparently, the tube exchange caused damage to her lungs and a tension pneumothorax developed. Unfortunately, neither the nurse anesthetist nor the anesthesiologist timely recognized and treated the pneumothorax. The woman never woke up and she died less than three weeks later. She left behind two young children.
Jeff Rickard and Rip Andrews represented the famly of a 34-year-old woman who died when the car she was riding in was struck by a commercial tractor-trailer rig. The wreck happened at a major intersection in Calhoun County. The driver of the tractor trailer rig failed to stop and struck our client’s car in the middle of the intersection on the driver’s side. The driver claimed an air leak in the line to the trailer brakes caused the brakes to overheat. Jeff and Rip developed expert testimony disproving that claim and proved the driver of the tractor trailer made serious driving errors that casued the wreck, including “cooking” the rig’s brakes making them useless by the time the truck reached the intersection.
Derrick Mills resolved a case against an ambulance company and a hospital following the death of a woman in the hospital waiting room. Once emergently transported, no hospital personnel ever talked to our client to determine her chief complaint or condition. Video of the waiting room showed the woman contined to suffer from pain and distress. About 30 to 40 minutes later, the woman suffered an acute heart attack that ultimately led to her death.
David Marsh, Ty Brown and Dylan Marsh represented an older woman who was critically injured while recovering from abdominal surgery. Our client was a patient at a long-term care facility. Her abdominal wound was healing well when the nurses improperly applied our client’s wound vacuum after changing a wound dressing. The improper application of the wound vacuum destroyed the skin graft on our client’s abdomen. As a result, our client’s bowels were sucked into the wound vacuum sponge causing more than a dozen holes in her bowels that now continuously leak stomach acid onto her skin. Her abdominal wound can never be closed. She is completely bedbound and can no longer eat.
David Marsh, Ben Ford, and Susan Silvernail resolved a case on behalf of a 23-year-old woman who emerged from neck surgery catastrophically injured. The case against a Birmingham doctor and his employer grew out of the misplacement of a surgical screw, which resulted in serious damage to the young woman’s brain stem. Our client was hospitalized for months, forced to re-learn how to walk and talk. She was left with long-long impairments to her motor skills and her cognitive abilities.
Jeff Rickard represented two college students who were seriously injured as a result of fraternity hazing. The lawsuits against a national fraternity organization came about after the students went through an initiation ritual known as “Hell Night”. During the event, the young men, who were blind-folded, were struck by various objects about their bodies. Both required lengthy hospitalization for their internal injuries. The lawsuits settled short of trial for a confidential sum.
