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Family files lawsuit over boxer’s injuries

On Behalf of | Apr 4, 2014 | Doctor Errors |

North Carolina residents may be interested in a recent case concerning a boxer injured in a November 2013 match in New York City. The family of the Russian heavyweight fighter believes that, after the fight, doctors assigned by the New York State Athletic Commission to the match did not provide the medical attention the fighter needed and that such doctor negligence contributed to the fighter’s condition worsening and, eventually, caused him to fall into a coma.

Early in the match, the boxer’s opponent hit him in the face with a forearm and, by the end of the fight, his face had become bloody and disfigured. After the fight, the doctors did not call an ambulance to take the man to the hospital for his injuries. Instead, he went from Madison Square Garden to a hospital about 25 blocks away by taxi. Doctors there removed a blood clot from his brain, but he suffered multiple strokes, went into a coma for a week and remains bedridden. Doctors are unsure if he will ever walk or talk again.

The family’s attorney claim that the fight should have been called after the boxer suffered the forearm to his face. He also said that the doctors were reckless by not providing the boxer with sufficient medical attention after the fight. The family’s lawsuit named several parties as defendants in addition to the five doctors with the commission.

Many cases of medical malpractice simply involve doctors failing to take proper steps and thereby worsening a patient’s condition. The family in this story has been damaged in many ways, including providing medical treatment for the injured boxer, replacing the income he could have earned and caring for him if he does not recover.

Source: ESPN, “Injured boxer’s family files lawsuit“, William Weinbaum, March 27, 2014