Mother may have "failure to diagnose" claim against Hayward hospital
"We were just driving down the freeway and a car decided to do donuts on the highway," the toddler's mother said. She stopped and waited for the car in front of her to stop spinning around. That is when she was hit by a big rig from behind.
"A hard impact - spinning out of control - it was just really scary," the mother told reporters. She added that she thought her mother and her son were dead because they both lost consciousness after the truck accident.
Both grandmother and son survived, but doctors at Kaiser's Hayward hospital failed to detect that the child had a suffered a broken neck in three places. Physicians at another hospital discovered the broken neck a few days later.
Several types of lawsuits can arise out of a situation such as this one. In addition to the lawsuits arising out of the truck accident, the family may also be able to pursue a medical malpractice claim against the physicians who failed to detect that the child had a broken neck. Reports indicate that the child will struggle with mobility issues for the rest of his life.
Source: CBS San Francisco, "2-Year-Old Recovering From Crash Linked To San Leandro Sideshow," April 8, 2013
