QUESTION
Is there something I should do to protect my mom if ambulance company is acting very uncooperative?
Asked on Apr 05th, 2017 on Personal Injury - California
More details to this question:
My disabled mother had to take a ambulance because of head and ankle injuries from falling. I told them she was about 211lbs and we had 2 flights of steps. Two men showed up and had my mom sit in her wheelchair so they could transport her from the apartment to the ambulance. About 3 steps down one list his footing and dropped my mom in her chair, her back and head hit the concrete and the other man landed on top of her. She was stuck until another unit showed up. Since then I’ve tried to get an accident report of anything. I might need and have spoken to beyond rudely.
1 ANSWER
Your mother does not need at this point a report from the ambulance company. Write to them for contact information as to their insurance carrier and make a claim with them. see if the hospital can separate what expenses are for the accident and what for her pre-existing condition [if they are to different parts of the body or one is an illness, it may be very easy to do so]. Take pictures of the staircase. Consider going to some local personal injury attorneys to see if you might want to hire one; it is your mother's claim so she is the one who has to hire the attorney. You might have a Dillon claim for emotional distress for seeing the injury happen to your mother, even though you were not in the zone of danger, but it might not be worth very much. Find out if the ambulance company is a private company or owned by a governmental agency as if the latter, she has to file a claim within 6 months of the incident.
Answered on Jul 02nd, 2017 at 12:59 AM