Brain injury woman awarded $12mRSS Feed

A woman left in a vegetative state has been awarded $12 million (£7.6 million) by a jury in the US.

Lawyers representing Jessica Ramirez claimed that she waited several hours at a hospital with an air rifle pellet lodged in her brain before she was sent elsewhere for specialist treatment.

The jury at Pomono Superior Court concluded that Greater El Monte Community Hospital in California was negligent in its treatment of the 22-year-old, who had walked into the hospital after being shot but then apparently waited five hours before being flown to another hospital for surgery.

Ms Ramirez's lawyers reported that she has now been left in a "minimally conscious" and vegetative state, which may have been avoided had she been given prompt treatment.

Greater El Monte Community Hospital has indicated it will appeal, saying: "Despite the verdict, we strongly believe the evidence presented in this case shows that our emergency room staff provided compassionate, timely and clinically appropriate care to a patient who had suffered a catastrophic head injury."

The hospital is located in the city of South El Monte, seven miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

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