Former Flight Nurse Gets $1 Million in Personal Injury Compensation
A West Richland woman who worked as an in-flight nurse for a medical transport airline service recently won a personal injury compensation lawsuit she filed against the charter plane service for a 2011 incident that caused her to lose hearing in one ear.
Dawn Workman, now 44, worked as a nurse for Airlift Northwest, a company that airlifts critically injured or ill patients to nearby hospitals for treatment. On the flight in question, Airlift Northwest chartered a plane with Executive Flight Inc, based in East Wenatchee, Washington. In February 2011, the flight took an unconscious patient, Workman, and another nurse with Airlift Northwest into Seattle. As they were about to land at Boeing Field, the emergency exit window near Workman fell in, causing an immediate change in cabin pressure. Although the plane was at a low enough altitude that no one was seriously injured, Workman reportedly lost hearing in one ear due to the rapid change in pressure in the cabin.
After the incident, she attempted to return to work with Airlift Northwest, but later left because she said she did not feel safe on an airplane without being able to hear which direction sounds were coming from.
Workman then filed a personal injury lawsuit against Executive Flight Inc – Airlift Northwest was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, because Workman maintains that company did nothing wrong. She maintained, however, that poor maintenance of the airplane led to her injury and forced her to leave her job. According to the specs for the Learjet 35A chartered through Executive Flight Inc, there should have been a safety wire attached to the handle of the emergency exit window, which was never found.
“The jury heard all the evidence and Dawn is very happy with the outcome. She got to tell her story about what happened because, throughout this process, Executive Flight took the perspective that she did something wrong,” her attorney said. “It was good for her to … show that she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t pull the handle or bump the handle.”
Executive Flight reportedly offered her a settlement of $125,000, but Workman chose to pursue personal injury compensation through trial because she had already accrued $40,000 in medical bills, and much more in lost wages from being forced to quit her job due to the injury. Once she and her attorney calculated her losses, they asked the jury for $2 million.
Workman said she is happy with the $1 million personal injury compensation award.
“It’s a pretty conservative community up there [in Yakima, WA],” her attorney said, “and it demonstrates that she suffered a real harm that people value.”
The Strom Law Firm May Be Able to Help You With Personal Injury Compensation Against a Third Party
If you have been injured while working and the injury was not caused by your employer in some fashion, but by a third party, you may be eligible for a personal injury compensation through a lawsuit to help you with additional medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages. The South Carolina personal injury attorneys at the Strom Law Firm can help. We offer a free case evaluation to discuss the incident that led to your personal injury, and see how we can help you, so contact us today. 803.252.4800
