The father of a Ohio University (OU) student, who sued the school for wrongful death after his daughter died from a bacterial meningitis infection on campus, has been awarded $1 million in a settlement.
The Post, an Athens, Ohio, news publication, reports that in February 2010, the OU student had contracted on campus a strain of bacterial meningitis that had no vaccine. When the young woman became sick and her temperature shot up to 103.8 degrees, she contacted the school's Hudson Health Center to report her symptoms. The center proceeded to tell her to simply drink some water, take Tylenol and rest. She later died from the infection.
This tragedy prompted her father to launch a wrongful death lawsuit against OU, accusing the school of failing to both diagnose her symptoms accurately as well as inform the student body that there was a bacterial meningitis strain without a vaccine on campus at the time.
Now, five years after losing his daughter, the father has been awarded a $1 million lawsuit by an Ohio Court of Claims judge. As part of the settlement, OU will be responsible for paying about $100,000 of those damages.
"Ohio University is pleased that the parties have been able to amicably settle the litigation," OU spokeswoman Katharine Quartana said in an emailed statement. "The university does not admit liability in the settlement agreement."
No amount of money can ever account for the death of a loved one, but that doesn't change the fact that family members who have lost a relative to negligent behavior like this may still be entitled to financial damages. To have an expert accident attorney assess your wrongful death claim and fight for the restitution you might be owed, contact The Meyers Law Firm.