LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Doctor Wins $300,000 for Injuries in Hospital Shooting
A doctor won a $300,000 settlement from Los Angeles County on Tuesday for injuries he suffered when a man went on a shooting rampage in a crowded County-USC Medical Center waiting room in 1993.
Dr. Pawel Kaszubowski was one of three doctors wounded when Damascio Ybarra Torres stormed a waiting area of the busy emergency room with two handguns, a rifle and a hunting knife in a bloody standoff that lasted five hours.
Torres was sentenced in June to three life sentences plus 12 years for the attack, which prompted the hospital to institute strict security measures. Torres, a former patient at the hospital, claimed that he was driven to act because County-USC doctors had used him as a guinea pig in AIDS research--a contention the county denied.
The bone in Kaszubowski’s right arm was shattered, causing nerve damage and rendering the doctor unable to tend to his patients, according to the claims report. Kaszubowski has also undergone prolonged psychiatric treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome, the report said.
The report urged the county Board of Supervisors to settle the case because “expert testimony is critical of the county requiring emergency room physicians to treat patients in the open areas of the emergency room . . . where the physician is exposed to a risk of harm from an impatient, frustrated and angry patient.”
The report noted that since the shootings, the county has “corrected the condition,” moving to add more guards and restrict access to the facility.
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