Paraplegic Awarded $1.5m From Fresno Hospital

September 6, 2012

A man who was left partially paralyzed by an infection has been awarded $1.5 million from a Fresno, Calif. medical center.

The Fresno Bee says jurors ruled Tuesday that Kaiser Permanente Medical Center was 30 percent negligent for Dusten Chevalier’s condition. However, the jury said Chevalier himself was mostly responsible.

The 27-year-old was left a paraplegic because of an untreated staph infection. His suit said Kaiser discovered the infection through a blood test after he went to the emergency room.

Kaiser says it repeatedly tried to contact Chevalier but his contact information was wrong and he failed to keep follow-up appointments with specialists. Police were called in but couldn’t locate him.

Chevalier’s attorneys say he isn’t a Kaiser member and couldn’t afford the $200 cost of the appointments.

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Latest Comments

  • September 7, 2012 at 11:59 am
    Gil says:
    Well Bob there was more to the story, he was a drug addict who had racked up more then 25 free ER visit chasing prescription drugs but 9 jurors only saw a guy bound to a wheel... read more
  • September 6, 2012 at 3:02 pm
    CSP says:
    Sob, Sob. Look what I did to myself. Somebody needs to give me some money.
  • September 6, 2012 at 1:35 pm
    Bob says:
    There has to be more to this story, how can the hospital be 30% at fault when the paitient did not follow through. From the article they did everything and then some to try t... read more
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