October 10, 2008
On May 18, 2005, the plaintiff visited a shoe store to purchase a pair of black sandals manufactured by the defendant. The next evening (May 19, 2005), she wore the black sandals. The next morning, May 20, 2005, she again wore the sandals to an event and returned to her house around 11 AM. At approximately 11:30 AM, while walking downstairs to her home office in her house, the heel on the right sandal flew off, causing her to fall and sustain injuries to her left ankle and lower back.
The plaintiff came under the immediate care of an orthopedic surgeon, who ordered several objective tests. An MRI of the left ankle revealed a non-displaced cortical fracture within the posterior aspect of the calcaneus, large joint effusion with diffuse soft tissue swelling about the ankle joint, especially in the region of the medial malleolus and injury and partial tear of the flexor hallucis longus tendon with sprain and/or tendinopathy of the tibialis posterior tendon. Her doctor ordered her to stay off her feet for the next sixteen weeks. The plaintiff also underwent CT scan of her lower back that revealed a broad-based right-sided subligamentous disc protrusion suspected at L5/S1. Thereafter, she underwent an operation to my lower back at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, New Jersey. The procedure first entailed a provocative discogram at L3/4, L4/5 and L5/S1 with x-ray interpretation. Because of positive findings at L5/S1, an endoscopic discectomy at L5/S1 with biportal transforaminal approach with the Wolf endoscope, and bilateral transforaminal epidural steroid injections was performed by her surgeons. Her doctor's post-operative diagnosis was lumbar radiculopathy, herniated disc at L5/S1. Thereafter, she underwent a bilateral L5/S1 transforaminal steroid injection into the L5 nerve root sheath, and a second lumbar epidural steroid injection as well as a transforaminal epidural injection.
Lawyer Jeffrey E. Grabelle settled the case prior to the return date of a motion for summary judgment on liability.
