Paraplegic Awarded $1.5M From California Hospital

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.