In June 2008, Esmin Green, 49, has been waiting for nearly 24 hours inside Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn to receive treatment when she suddenly collapsed on the floor.
A surveillance camera shows how Green struggled for 30 minutes to get up, jolting her feet and arms in a futile effort to stand. Despite her deplorable condition, doctors, nurses, and security guards ignored her and walked away, as if they have no regard to human life.
For an hour, staffers would just stare at Green, stop for a while, before finally walking away. However, a nurse bothered to look at her condition and checked her pulse—she was dead.
Since the video footage has been shown on television and Internet, there has been a public outcry over Green’s death and six hospital employees have already been fired.
The hospital has also paid $200 million wrongful death settlement to Green’s family. However, authorities are still conducting an investigation to know what happened at the hospital and to identify who are the people responsible for this incident.
According to lawyers, what happened inside the hospital is an example of wrongful death accident which involved a person who died due to the negligence or recklessness of another individual or party who is supposed to provide safety. In this situation, lawyers said that surviving relatives can seek damages in a wrongful death lawsuit.
In this civil lawsuit, immediate family members including parents, spouses, and children can receive monetary compensation to cover the damages and injuries from the accidental death. However, some states also allow distant family members such as brothers, sisters, and grandparents to receive claims.
The amount a family member can receive will depend on many factors such as the state’s law, his/her relationship to the victim, and the earning capacity of the person who died from the wrongful death accident.
Because the victim’s earning capacity is one of the most important considerations in giving claims, family members of young children and elder people who will die from wrongful death accidents will receive a smaller compensation.
On the other hand, when an adult, who is in the prime of his career and has children, die from an accident caused by negligence, his/her children will receive bigger compensation to cover the loss of their parent’s income, care, guidance, and support.
To determine the proper amount of damages, involved parties usually seek the opinion of experts and actuaries.
Meanwhile, the damages in a wrongful death lawsuit will cover economic and non-economic losses which include medical expenses, funeral bills, loss of income of the victim, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship, guidance and care.
When filing for wrongful death claims, the federal constitution does not allow a person to charge another family member with such lawsuit to uphold family relations.
Another important thing to consider in filing these claims is the statute of limitation which determines the allowable period a family member can file wrongful death claims against the liable party.
Usually, statute of limitation lasts for two years. However, this may be extended in some special cases.
