Van bumbled8/28/2023 "I am really shocked it turned out the way it did," said Torti. Meanwhile, Torti said she feels betrayed by a former colleague and is now shy about helping others. "Now it puts the onus on the lay person in an emergency situation to try to figure out the nuances of what medical care means, something that could subject them to liability later on." "It's much too literal an interpretation of the immunity law for Good Samaritans," he told. He said the ruling will force ordinary people to be "reflective" before coming to the aid of a person in an emergency. Peter Keane, a dean emeritus and professor of law at Golden Gate Law School, said the impact of the court ruling will "be a bad one" and have repercussions in about a dozen other states that have Good Samaritan laws. "She is ruined for life," said Hutchinson.īut Torti said her life, too, has also been changed forever, "jolting" her relationship with her parents, whose homeowner's insurance will end up paying if she loses the case. Now 26, she has returned to her home in Minneapolis and is confined to a wheelchair. Van Horn was taken to the hospital where she underwent surgery. If the car had been on fire, why didn't she carry her 50 yards away?" "We all know that anyone suspected of a spinal injury should not be moved," he said. Hutchinson argues that despite her belief that there had been an explosion, Torti pulled the victim at an angle and dumped her on a hard median next to the car, allegedly injuring Van Horn's spine. It was her belief that the car was about to explode." Torti grabbed and pulled her out of the car. "She couldn't open the door and without being asked Ms. " got her seat belt off and was stunned," said Hutchinson. I would never drag someone out of anything or pull someone out like a rag doll."īut Van Horn's lawyer, Robert Hutchinson, told that witnesses said there was never any danger of an explosion, and both the driver and a backseat passenger were still in the car when Torti took Van Horn from the vehicle. "She said she couldn't move out of the car," said Torti. But Van Horn testified that her friend grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from the car "like a rag doll," allegedly causing injury to a vertebrae and a lacerated liver.Ĭourt documents showed that the question of whether she was paralyzed during the crash or when she was pulled out of the car is in dispute. Torti said she put one arm under the victim's legs and one behind her back, carrying her out of the car. I did the best thing I could to move her from the situation and get her out of danger to a place that was a little safer." ![]() "There could be so many things that could happen and I obviously wanted to get her out of the car," said Torti. ![]() Before emergency crews arrived, she allegedly offered to help Van Horn from the wreckage. Torti said she was a passenger in another car that was following them. The car in which Van Horn and another passenger were riding spun out of control and hit a telephone pole. They had been drinking with a group of friends and left a bar in suburban Chatsworth after a Halloween party, according to court papers. ![]() But Van Horn's lawyers said their argument is "nonsense."Īt the time of the accident, Torti and Van Horn, both make-up artists, were acquaintances at work.
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