Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this brain injury case and its proceedings.)
Mr. Santoro suffered a severe skull fracture, which caused substantial bleeding, bruising and swelling in his brain. He was in a coma, near death, for nearly a month. He had two operations in an attempt to relieve the bleeding, swelling and fluid in his brain. In the second operation it was necessary to remove parts of the temporal and frontal lobes of his brain. A total of ten centimeters of brain tissue had to be removed from Mr. Santoro’ frontal lobes (referred to as a lobectomy, the equivalent of a lobotomy. While Mr. Santoro’ life was saved, he has sustained permanent brain damage and will need life-long care. He was hospitalized for a total of over eight months and has incurred well over $1.5 million in medical bills. He has not returned to work and now lives with his parents and brothers, all of whom have assisted in his care.
At the very minimum this is a case of comparative fault and plaintiffs d images will clearly have to be litigated.
Earlier in the evening, Mr. Santoro and one of his friends, Paul Thomas, agreed to meet after work Downtown to watch the Rose Bowl football game which, that year, was the national championship game played in the evening between U.S.C. and Texas. A third friend, Danny Jones, joined them later in the evening.
Mr. Santoro and his friends had dinner and watched the game at an East Sac. restaurant then moved to a pub next door after dinner to watch the remainder of the game. Mr. Santoro had several beers over the course of several hours, but was not drunk and was not driving.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. Mr. Santoro and his friends were walking to Mr.Thomas’ car intending to go home. As they walked along Market Street two men, unknown to Mr. Santoro and his friends, were walking behind them and began harassing them. Mr. Santoro and his friends crossed Market Street hoping to avoid these men but the men followed them across the street. By this time Mr.Thomas, who was walking faster, was several feet ahead.
The two men continued harassing Mr. Santoro and Mr. Hernandez and eventually started a light with them. Mr.Thomas returned to assist and saw Mr. Santoro on the ground with one of the assailants on top of Mr. Santoro. He pulled the man off of Mr. Santoro.
Officer Doe at this point drove to the scene and hit his siren as he pulled up. The fighting stopped and Mr. Santoro began jogging away.