Our client, an 8-year-old girl, was seriously injured and horrifically disfigured when her left knee was impaled by limbs from a small bush that had been trimmed down low to the ground in a way that they resembled small spears sticking up from the ground. While at school, a ball she was playing with rolled under a guardrail onto neighboring property.

When she went to retrieve the ball, which was on the other side of the guardrail, she fell onto the tree limbs and the limb went into her knee. She was taken to the emergency room and after removing the tree limb, she received 8 sutures to her lacerated left knee. X-rays were also taken which showed a possible tibia fracture requiring her to see an orthopedic doctor and necessitated wearing a knee immobilizer and the use of a walker.

After weeks of recovery and while our young client has physically healed, the scars will be with her for the rest of her life. The horrific scar on her left leg has significantly impacted her self-esteem, mood, level of anxiety and her ability to enjoy social activities.

This case offered some unique obstacles as she was actually injured on municipal property; however, we were able to settle her personal injury claim with the school for $105,000.00 as we alleged that the school was negligent in supervising her when it let her go onto neighboring property to retrieve the ball without first inspecting the area.
We are now pursuing a claim against the second defendant, the municipal park district, where our client actually suffered the injury.