Injured by Malfunctioning Door at the Hospital...

by Anonymous
(USA)

I was leaving the hospital through the automatic sliding door. It malfunctioned and flew off the hinges and hit me in the head, knocking me unconscious and causing a severe concussion that has now developed into post concussion syndrome (PCS).

I've lost wages and incurred medical bills and prescription costs (no health insurance). The PCS can last for weeks or months and I will lose my job because of this (as well as suffering all the PCS symptoms).

The hospital did an incident report and stated the door malfunctioned and I did nothing wrong. Is the hospital liable, or perhaps the door manufacturer? Thanks for any insight you can give.

Disclaimer: Information provided in our response is NOT formal legal advice. It is generic legal information based on the very limited information you provided. Under no circumstances should the information in our response, or anywhere else on this site be relied upon when making decisions about your case. You should always get a formal case review from a licensed attorney.

ANSWER for "Injured by Malfunctioning Door at the Hospital...":

Without any contributory negligence on your part it appears there may possibly be four liable parties. They are the hospital, the door manufacturer, the door installer, and the company, if different from the installer, which serviced the door. The legal process which follows will be like this:

You will seek damages for actual damages – ambulance, emergency room and other medical treatment. You should also be entitled to your out of pocket expenses. These include over the counter medication, bandages, etc., prescription medications, and even parking lot fees when seeing your physician for follow up treatment.

You can also seek damages for your Pain and Suffering, and if the court believes the negligence was of a nature to be unconscionable, you may receive punitive damages as well.

Once you institute legal proceedings against all parties listed above they will be left to sort out among themselves who is liable, if at all, for your injuries. You should be able to “sit on the sidelines” while they are cutting each other to pieces attempting one and all, to escape liability.

At the end it will be up to the Court to decide which of the parties is liable and for what percentage of the injuries they will be responsible for.

Since laws change frequently and across jurisdictions you should get a personalized case evaluation from an attorney licensed in your state (if you haven't already). Find an experienced local attorney to give you a FREE personalized case review here.


Best of luck,

Law Guy