BUSINESSMAN Yoon Suk Chang has sued American Memorial Park after he sustained an ankle injury there that required a medical operation.
Chang is claiming a financial loss due to the injury and is asking the federal court to award him damages in the amount of $1 million.
Chang, represented by attorney William M. Fitzgerald, filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the NMI on Dec. 7, 2021.
American Memorial Park is controlled, operated, supervised, managed and maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Fitzgerald said the plaintiff’s claims were presented to the appropriate agency on March 22, 2021, and acknowledged by a letter, dated May 25, 2021, from the chief ranger of American Memorial Park.
As of Dec. 7, 2021, the defendant had not denied the plaintiff’s claim, Fitzgerald added.
The lawsuit stated that on Dec. 8, 2019, the plaintiff, along with his two sons, went to the park and played in the grassy area adjacent to the amphitheater.
The plaintiff’s younger son started to go toward the parking lot away from the grassy area so the plaintiff followed him in order to stop him from going there.
As he started toward the parking lot, his foot went into a hole, which was about one foot deep. The hole caught his foot, causing him to fall violently to the ground, twisting his ankle, his lawsuit stated.
Fitzgerald said his client stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes because he was dazed and had almost passed out because of severe pain.
“Following the fall, plaintiff did not go to the hospital, but applied ice and took aspirin,” the lawsuit stated. “By Dec. 10, 2019, the pain was too intense and he went to Brothers Oriental Medicine Clinic, which recommended x-ray. Plaintiff then went to Pacific Medical Center where he was x-rayed.”
Throughout January 2020, the pain in plaintiff’s ankle persisted and he visited the Commonwealth Health Center on numerous occasions and was ultimately referred to an orthopedic specialist on March 16, 2020, the lawsuit stated.
It added that the CHC doctor recommended that plaintiff have an MRI, but because of Covid-19, the hospital was unable to refer him to Guam. Saipan did not have MRI capability.
With the pain persisting, Fitzgerald said his client decided to go to Korea at the beginning of June for treatment. In Korea, the doctors were able to diagnose the problem with an MRI.
On July 7, 2020, the doctors in Korea performed surgery, which included “debridement of the ankle and what is known as a Brostrom operation and subfibulare removal.”
According to the lawsuit, “Plaintiff was in the hospital in Korea for five days and was unable to return to his family in Saipan until August, spending almost three months in Korea in preparation and post-surgery recuperation.”
Prior to the accident at the park, Fitzgerald said his client was in the construction business on Saipan and had many projects pending when he was injured.
“Because his work required substantial physical activity, which he was unable to do because of his ankle’s condition, and the fact that plaintiff was away from Saipan for almost three months, he suffered financial losses in his business,” Fitzgerald said.
“Plaintiff was unable to make any money in 2020 because of his injury, and was forced to leave Saipan to go to Spokane, Washington alone without his family in an attempt to find some type of work that he is qualified to do, but does not require the physical activity that his construction business did,” the lawyer said.
Fitzgerald said his client also suffered financial loss because he was unable to finish an apartment complex he was building and, therefore, was unable to collect any rent during the years 2020 and 2021.
He said his client has been advised by the doctors in Korea that he may need additional surgery and perhaps an ankle replacement.
