Just when you think you've heard it all
 

THINK AGAIN

Woman Files Lawsuit After Being Saved From Drowning

http://www.wftv.com/news/4832756/detail.html

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A woman is suing the town whose police divers saved her from drowning.

Barbara Connors is suing the town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, saying she was rescued too late to prevent serious brain damage.

The Massachusetts woman was in her son-in-law's sport utility vehicle when it jumped a curb, went through a chain-link fence and plunged into the Connecticut River.

Connors was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when divers pulled her from the water.

The son-in-law escaped the sinking vehicle and was picked up by the crew of a passing boat. Connors is also suing him.

Among other things, the suit claims the town failed to provide appropriate guardrails and equipment needed by police divers.

It says the 75-year-old woman has brain damage and must be cared for in a nursing home for the rest of her life.

Wow! that is a new twist.

However, if she is competent enough mentally to get a lawyer and proceed with a lawsuit, how much brain damaged did she actually suffer, or perhaps it affects her physically not mentally?

Sweetpea

ya, theres NO WAY she wins this lawsuit

They shoulda left her to the fishes.

It sounds like they were already brain damaged!?!?!?

can you go back and sue someone for stupidity????

How big is she? We throw the small ones back.

Let's only hope. But these days, you can't be so sure. If you can sue whoever made the hot coffe that you spilled in your lap and win, then who knows what is possible.

Good for the police divers to save her ass. Some people would be thankful, others such as her take advantage of opportunity. I wonder what sparked this? Was a lawyer chasing the ambulance down or was it from her own stupidity?

I wonder if you can sue someone who sued you claiming emotional distress.

Dude, she's suing the police and her son-in-law? Cranky old bat. She's 75 - who's to say she wouldn't have needed nursing care anyhow?

Maybe the city could turn around and sue her for polluting the river.

That was exactly my thought. Given this frivolous lawsuit, she probably deserves to be in a home.

I believe she is suing the man who fished her son out of the water, not her son. Suing your own family is no way to get rich, which seems like this ladie's main motive...

The topic said it all... just wow. Amazingly pathetic.

This kinda thing makes me sick... I hate it that no one can take responsibility for themselves anymore. What's next, people suing the fire department because their house burned down?

I can just picture all these new policies going into effect if this idiot wins the case... "Don't worry, ma'am, we'll get you out of there. . . as soon as you sign this release form."

From a local paper of mine here in Connecticut, the Hartford Courant: link

Barbara Connors, 76, rescued after a car driven by her son-in-law plunged into the Connecticut River last October, is suing a long list of town officials for damages.

"I find it extraordinary the town is being sued in these circumstances," First Selectman Mike Pace, one of the defendants, said at Thursday's selectmen's meeting.

The town's insurance company will represent Pace; park and recreation commission members; Police Chief Ed Mosca; Public Works Director Larry Bonin; Building Inspector Donald Lucas; Town Planner Christine Nelson; and Chester Slododosky, who the suit says was the zoning enforcement officer at the time, but had retired prior to the incident.

Also being sued is Alan Hauser, the son-in-law who lives with Connor's daughter in Old Lyme. Hauser told police he accidentally hit the accelerator of his Ford Explorer, which was running and in gear, causing the vehicle to jump the walk and crash through the chain-link fence that runs along the river at town-owned Saybrook Point.

Hauser had driven his mother-in-law to the Point Oct. 14 to have lunch with her.

In the intent to sue filed by Connor's attorney, Robert Reardon Jr. of New London, late last year, the rescuers were named - police officers and volunteers - but are not included in the actual suit.

Instead, added to the suit are new accusations that the town failed to maintain a rescue dive team and refused to fund a team, causing Connors to spend 29 minutes submerged in the water until divers could get to her.

"There were some very heroic acts going on that day," acknowledged Reardon Thursday. Indeed, at a ceremony in town hall honoring the police, firefighters and others who repeatedly dove without equipment to try to rescue Connors, her family attended and thanked those honored.

But, Reardon contended, divers at the ready would have meant "these people didn't have to risk their lives and my client could have been rescued in a timely manner."

Reardon said Connors, who had been living on her own in Massachusetts, has severe brain damage from the incident and lives with round-the-clock care in a nursing home in Waterford that she is never expected to leave.

The suit also charges the fence should have been stronger, the Point patrolled at lunchtime by police and more signs warning of "unsafe conditions" posted.

Pace told fellow selectmen the suit would be fought "vigorously by the town," which he pointed out not only provided scores of rescuers, but also sustained costs in needed repairs.


The suit is all about who pays for this woman's care. She doesn't know her ass from her elbow at this point. In the background are insurance company attorneys battling other insurance company attorneys, casting a wide net for fees and liabilities.

To clarify: the son-in-law is being sued, the actual rescuers are now not, and the city officials are being sued for not having a diving team in place, among other things.

When I took CPR we were told that there is Good Samaitan clause in all 50 states that allows a recuer immunity. I don't know if Trained pros.. like paramedics and the like are exempt, but I don't see the lady winning this suit

Unpopular (though since she's being an ass, perhaps not THAT unpopular) opinion:

As for the old woman, she's 75. She will require 24/7 nurse care for "the rest of her life". She's a frail 75-year old with brain damage. I DOUBT she's going to live to be too much older. If she does, big deal. She should be awarded (IF ANYTHING) the cost of the nursing, no more. No reason she should get vast amounts of money to leave to future generations. Personally, I hope she doesn't get shit for money.

Side note: She's not a good person because she dropped the names of the rescuers from the list in her suit- her lawyer reminded her that civil servants don't make shit, and suing them will do no good, and also it would make her look bad (ungrateful for being saved). She's gotta keep up the poor, nice granny image or she won't get shit for sympathy- and therefore, won't get shit for money. She's now only got her attentions on those in the city, who HAVE the money (since it's the city's insurance company which would foot the bill) to be gotten through a lawsuit.

I hope she doesn't get one dime from them.

I heard about this yesterday and laughed my ass off. I mean seriously, what is wrong with some people?

wow she actually is suing her son-in-law, vindictive isn't she.

If I were the judge, I would rule that she be put to death by drowning, just on principle.

There is no way OJ is innocent either but that didn't keep him from walking the streets. Stranger things have happened including a little personal responsibility test involving a certain perveyor of fat ladden food and a solitary cup of piping hot coffee.

It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

edit: If I'm the tire manufacturer of the set on this vehicle I'm getting a little nervous about now.

Will this get to court? Hopefully sense will prevail and all parties will agree to payment of her medical and living expenses only. Its cases like these that make insurance premiums high.

I doubt that any person with "severe brain damage" is making any ongoing decisions for herself. The suit is most likely in the name of her estate. I doubt this woman has little or any comprehension of the case around her.

As for her getting any money -- have a little compassion, people! She has severe brain damage, and will likely not ever leave the same couple of rooms in her nursing home for the rest of her shortened life. I hope some insurance comes her way to pay her necessary medical bills.

It's the motives of her "advocates" that worries me. These are the leeches that stand to profit from the whole miserable affair.

:rolleyes:

I'm sure after it happened the "ambulance" chasing lawyers were all over her..

It still boggles my mind that she's suing her son-in-law, that's just messed up. Hopefully the judge throws the case out, because even if it is about who pays for her nursing home, the town shouldn't have to. They went out there to save her life, not get sued.

Also, as far as a diving team goes, it's expensive to maintain SCUBA gear and keep people certified. If a town doesn't have a large beach area or other waterfront where this sort of thing may needed, it's easy to understand why they may not want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a dive team.

This son-in-law was going to have lunch with this bitch?
He just happened to hit the gas, go thru a chain link fence and into a river?
Then escaped and swam away from the vehical?

maybe.