If you drive about 30 miles north of Joplin, you come to the town of Frontenac,
Kansas. Two weeks ago, an elementary school principal, her son and her
assistant were stopped mid-morning in a car at a stoplight.
That\’s when a Kenworth tractor-trailer slammed into the back of the
34-year-old principal\’s vehicle, shoving it forward into the rear
of a second 18-wheeler. The large truck also struck two other vehicles
from behind before it veered left and crashed into another big rig, toppling
that truck onto its side. Thetruck accident left the principal, her son and her assistant with severe injuries.
In fact, the principal remains in a coma, hospitalized in Kansas City.
Doctors have tried to relieve pressure on her brain, even as they work
on internal injuries and fractured bones. She recently had surgeries on
a broken ankle and her lower jaw.
Doctors said her jaws will be wired shut for at least a month, requiring
a tracheotomy and installation of a feeding tube.
It’s also been an extraordinarily difficult time for her son, who
has Down syndrome and is autistic. He sustained lung damage and broken
ribs, requiring him to be placed in an immobilization cast and neck brace.
The principal’s assistant, hospitalized here in Joplin, has been
released from the intensive care unit, and is apparently on the mend.
According to a news report, all three have difficult medical challenges
ahead of them. Those challenges will undoubtedly come with high price
tags. In similar situations, an experienced attorney will sit down with
accident injury victims and their families when they are ready to discuss
legal options for compensation for the damages they have suffered.
Source: The Chanute Tribune,
\”Erie principal, son still hospitalized,\” Colleen Williamson, April 25, 2014
