Joanne Knabb was less than 1 week old when she was transported by a children's hospital. The ambulance that carried her in a pediatric infant ICU transport device, was impacted by a drunk driver traveling in the wrong direction on a major highway. LSSLC, LLC assisted Attorney Robert Varsek in securing a substantial settlement from a major medical device manufacturer, hospital and ambulance company.

Attorney Varsek came to us looking for any standards that we could secure regarding medical device manufacturing. In our search, we discovered OSI's that the medical device manufacturer had previously denied existed.

We then helped Varsek find and build his expert team. LSSLC found a local accident reconstructionist. This held down costs and provided quantitative statistics for speed and force at impact.  Then we set out to retain a qualified biomechanical engineer who could connect Joanne's brain injuries to the product and incident.  Added to our team was a specialist in infant/child restraint technology and systems engineering and an M.D. with field experience transporting children. Our expert team also consisted of a metallurgist and mechanical engineer who analyzed the system for securing the incubator and cart to the ambulance.

Through testing, we were able to show how inadequate the existing infant restraint system was and the failures of the under designed device for securing the transport carrier to the ambulance. It was the lack of proper restraint and mechanical failure of the incubator to ambulance attachment that lead to little Joanne's catastrophic injuries.

More work needs to be done to keep infants and children safe in ambulances. These transport devices still put our kids at risk. 

Please call or email Linda Sherman:  lss@lsshermanconsulting.com if you have or seek information about this issue and how we all can work toward keeping infants and children from injuries associated with ambulance transport. 
  

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