Mother Sues School District for $2.8 Million After Triplegic Non-Verbal Son Comes Home with Two Fractured Bones
A mother from Portland, Oregon, is suing the school district of her son with special needs for $2.8 million after he fell out of his wheelchair and suffered two fractured thighbones two years ago, which the school did not inform her of until 3 days after the incident.
According to The Oregonian, Sherry Schregardus said that her son, Devin, who has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal and suffers from a seizure disorder, fell from his wheelchair on Dec. 1, 2017, after his teachers at Ron Russell Middle School failed to strap him in properly.
Court documents said that she received a text from the school at 10:29 a.m. saying that Devin had been “whining.” Schregardus texted the school staff back and told them to give Devin Tylenol or ibuprofen. The school later informed Schregardus that Devin “seemed better.”
According to the suit, Devin took the bus home that day, but his mother said that she noticed he seemed extremely uncomfortable after he got home when she touched his legs. After suffering a traumatic brain injury as an infant, Devin lost the ability to use three of his limbs.
“I got him into the house, and then he started just wailing. So I said, ‘Hey buddy,’ and I touched his thigh. And he just screamed as if somebody had broken his leg,” Schregardus said, according to KATU.
Schregardus took her son to the Emergency Room at Legacy Randall Children’s Hospital for x-rays, which showed that Devin’s right thighbone has been fractured, The Oregonian reported.
“He sat there all day, unable to tell anybody, unable to express what had happened to him. And it was brutal,” Schregardus told KATU.
According to the lawsuit, when Schregardus called the school the next day to tell the staff — including Devin’s teacher, physical therapist and former principal Thu Troung — about the extent of Devin’s injuries, no one mentioned that he fell.
It wasn’t until three days after the incident that the staff told her that he had fallen from his wheelchair, The Oregonian reported.
Devin’s wheelchair has straps for his ankles, lap and chest. According to the suit, Devin had only been strapped in around his ankles and chest when he fell. His head reportedly smacked against the floor because he couldn’t brace himself.
Schregardus informed doctors of the incident a week later in a follow-up appointment. Devin was x-rayed again and it was found that his left thighbone was also fractured and had become unaligned in the time between the fall and the follow-up appointment.
He had to go into surgery to have it re-aligned with permanent metal screws.
KATU reported that though Devin had to undergo surgery and physical therapy, the emotional toll was the largest. His grandmother, Connie Schregardus said that Devin is still distrusting and afraid to this day.
“Halfway through you have to go home because he’s in so much pain and he doesn’t tolerate anything. So we’ve basically been homebound,” she said.
According to court documents, Sherry Schregardus and her family are seeking $2.8 million, in part because of the emotional trauma that Devin continues to suffer from after he was left in pain for so long without medical attention, The Oregonian reported.
They are also suing the school district for not immediately telling her about Devin’s fall and because school staff reportedly did not secure Devin in his wheelchair properly.
“While the David Douglas School District takes the safety of our students very seriously, and makes it our highest priority, we are not able to comment on pending or ongoing litigation,” the school district told KATU in a statement.
Schregardus said that she wished she had learned about what had happened sooner and hopes that the lawsuit will have a significant effect.
“Non-verbal children don’t have a voice, and I don’t think Devin was represented well in this situation, and I feel like someone needed to speak for him,” she said.
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