Our client, a 49 year old New Windsor, NY resident, was attending baseball game with her family at a Dutchess County stadium. She decided to go down to field level to watch the grounds crew drain the day’s rainfall from the playing area. She walked down 3-5 steps with no issue, but when she came to the last step it was twice as far down as the previous steps. There was no handrail and she fell into the fence when her ankle buckled.
X-rays showed her ankle was broken in three places. She subsequently had surgery with hardware inserted. Her ankle continued to be swollen and painful, and she had difficulty walking. Our client could no longer enjoy her hobbies and was unable to wear many types of shoes. She had physical therapy and cortisone injections and was enduring a long recovery with an ankle brace. Sometime later she began having issues with the hardware in her ankle. She went to stand up one day and her ankle buckled and she fell again. This time she suffered a fracture fibula and another ankle fracture which cause her to be in a hard cast for four weeks.