Dayton Jury Awards $2.92 Million to Young Crash Victim Who Lost His Leg After Botched Surgery

Published March 3, 2022 · Verdicts & Settlements

A broken ankle is supposed to heal. For a teenager from Franklin, it did not, and the surgery that was meant to fix it became the start of a second injury far worse than the first. On January 21, 2022, a Montgomery County jury found the surgeon negligent and awarded the young man $2.92 million, as reported by the Dayton Daily News on February 18.

The case is a reminder that the harm from a car crash does not always end at the scene. Sometimes the most serious injury comes later, in the operating room or in the follow-up care that was supposed to make things right.

What happened, as reported

According to the Dayton Daily News, Evan Hopkins was 17 in August 2017 when he was hurt in a head-on car crash on his way to the Warren County Career Center for school. He broke multiple bones, including his ankle.

Dr. Jerry Magone performed surgery on Hopkins in 2017 at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown. Hopkins' attorney, Jim Casey, told the newspaper that the ankle was not aligned and the fracture was not properly reduced (that is, the broken bones were not put back into their proper position).

Hopkins told the newspaper that at his follow-up appointments he was told his injuries were healing, though they did not appear to be. In January 2018 he began seeing another doctor, who recognized an infection and referred him to a foot and ankle specialist. By then, Hopkins said, the best option was amputation. He lost part of his leg.

The defense, according to a statement from Dr. Magone's attorney, presented testimony from a foot and ankle surgeon who supported Dr. Magone's care, and took the position that the crash itself, not the medical treatment, ultimately led to the amputation. The jury disagreed, finding Dr. Magone negligent in his care and treatment of Hopkins.

The newspaper reported that Premier Health, which operates Atrium Medical Center, was dismissed from the case before trial. Hopkins' attorney said he did not expect an appeal and that the case was resolved for an undisclosed amount.

Hopkins put the verdict in perspective in his interview: "If I could turn the money in and get my leg back, I think I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Two injuries, two kinds of claims

When a crash causes an injury and the medical care that follows makes it worse, the injured person may have two separate claims:

• A claim against the at-fault driver for the crash itself, governed by the rules for motor-vehicle negligence and paid, in most cases, by auto liability insurance or your own uninsured or underinsured coverage.
• A medical negligence claim against the doctor or provider whose care fell below the accepted standard, governed by a different set of rules and paid by malpractice insurance.

These claims are not interchangeable, and they do not always point in the same direction. In the Hopkins trial, the defense's central argument was that the crash, not the surgery, caused the amputation. That is a common strategy. A medical defendant will often blame the original trauma, while a driver's insurer may argue that the poor result was the doctor's fault. Someone has to untangle the two with medical experts, and the injured person should not be caught in the middle.

The deadlines are different, too

A medical claim in Ohio generally must be filed within one year after it accrues under R.C. 2305.113(A), far shorter than the two years for most crash claims. The statute allows the year to be extended by up to 180 days if the provider receives proper written notice before the year runs out. There is also a four-year outer limit for most medical claims.

That one-year clock is the reason it matters so much to recognize a second injury early. A crash victim who spends months trusting that a slow recovery is normal can lose the medical claim while still focused on the crash claim.

Signs your recovery may have gone wrong

Not every bad outcome is malpractice. Bones sometimes heal poorly even with excellent care, and infections can happen in spite of every precaution. But you should get a second opinion, and talk to a lawyer, if:

• you are told you are healing, but your pain, swelling, or function keeps getting worse;
• you develop redness, drainage, fever, or a wound that will not close after surgery;
• imaging after surgery shows hardware out of place or bones out of alignment;
• a second surgeon tells you the first procedure has to be redone; or
• your outcome is dramatically worse than what you were told to expect.

Our guide chapter on focusing on treatment first explains why every symptom belongs in your chart. In a case like this, those records also become the timeline that shows when a complication should have been caught. Missed appointments and long stretches without care make that timeline harder to prove; we explained why in our post on gaps in treatment.

What the verdict says about case value

A Montgomery County jury heard that a young man's crash injury, treated negligently, cost him part of his leg, and it returned a verdict in the millions. Permanent injuries such as amputations, especially to young people with decades of life ahead of them, carry substantial value in front of local juries. They involve lifetime medical costs, prosthetics, lost earning capacity, and the daily reality Hopkins described: getting out of bed and showering are now hard work.

Proving that value takes more than medical bills. It takes testimony from treating physicians and specialists, evidence of how daily life has changed, and often a life-care plan for future needs. Our guide chapter on what your case is worth explains how Ohio law measures these losses.

Crashes like the one that started this case are among the most violent on the road; we wrote last month about head-on and wrong-way crashes and why they produce such severe injuries.

What this means for you

If you were hurt in a crash and your recovery has gone badly, do not assume it is just bad luck, and do not assume the crash claim covers everything. You may have a separate claim against a medical provider, with a much shorter deadline. Get a second opinion, keep every record, and talk to a lawyer who understands both kinds of cases.