A devout Catholic family man, praying to a crucifix for help while his wife struggled with ovarian cancer, was allowed to pay homage to the church by cleaning the crucifix before it crashed down onto his leg causing its amputation, as reported by Fox News and other media outlets.
The man, assisted with some of his medical bills by the St. Patrick's Church in Newburgh, has since filed a personal injury lawsuit against the church for $3 million in damages.
Attorney Kevin Kitson is representing the plaintiff, D.J. The suit is scheduled to be tried in an Orange County Court in January 2013.
Kitson claims D.J., 45, began praying to the crucifix, situated outside of the church, when his wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. When the mother of three recovered, D.J. wanted to express his gratitude to his faith by offering to clean the crucifix.
The church agreed.
In May of 2010, while D.J. began to scrub, the cross somehow came away for its base. The weight of the crucifix allegedly caused D.J. to fall back onto the church's parking lot, with the crucifix weighing heavily upon him – and his right leg was crushed.
A helicopter transferred D.J. to the Westchester Medical Center. Doctors quickly diagnosed that the leg could not be saved and proceeded to amputate it below the knee.
According to reporters D.J. has filed the negligence lawsuit against the church, as he is now unable to obtain work.
Kitson told reporters that the accident was due to the negligence of the priest that allowed D.J. to begin the work on the cross. Kitson said, "This is just strictly a priest who didn't know the fact that this cross was in a defective condition, but not checking up on it or determining how safe it was for this to be done, unfortunately negligently telling someone to go forward with an action and causing this accident."
The church told reporters that the congregation had fundraised to collect $7,000, and some food donations, in an effort to assist the family.
However Kitson stated that the diocese's insurance company has made it difficult for the family to obtain further financial assistance.
Pastor F.H. said that the J. family is a "really good family." F.H. further elaborated, "The tragedy hit home for us. We never hid this from the people. I had to let the church know of the situation. We went to visit (D.J.), who is of Mexican descent. I got the OK to help raise a little more than $7,000. That doesn't even come close, but we wanted to do something because (D.J.) is a provider to his family. We collected things and tried to help as much as we could. This particularly impacted us because our community is mixed. We visited his home and one of the registered nurses from our parish would stop by and make sure his amputation was always clean."
F.H. also commented that members of D.J.'s family are continually welcomed in the church. His eldest daughter, E.J., works there part time and is helped by D.J.'s young son.
D.J.'s young son also witnessed the accident. F.H. said, "It's very unfortunate this took place."
You don't have be angry or upset to file a personal injury lawsuit, you only have to be injured in a way that you know was preventable. Contact a personal injury lawyer to file your lawsuit to recover your damages.