A former Ohio University student wants nearly $3.2 million in damages for severely disfiguring facial burns he suffered in 2006 while on a school-sponsored camping trip, according to court filings.
Christopher Mance, 25, of South Easton, Mass., had an epileptic seizure and fell face-first into a campfire while on the trip, according to his attorney. The resulting burns badly disfigured his face and required intensive medical care, including skin grafts and reconstructive surgery. Mance and his parents sued the university in May for negligence.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General said the office, which defends the university in state court, had no immediate comment on the filing.
Four expert witnesses will testify on Mance's behalf, said his attorney, Robert Miller, who specializes in personal injury cases. A forensic economic consultant estimated the burns, which cover Mance's face, will cost him almost $2.6 million in lost earnings and $343,000 in medical care during his lifetime. Miller said he will also ask for $250,000 - the maximum allowed in the Court of Claims of Ohio - for pain, suffering and other emotional damages.
It's way in excess of the $250
000 cap I'll tell you that Miller said, adding that he would ask for seven figures if allowed to take the case before a jury. Judges hear and rule on cases brought against state entities, like the university.
The case hinges on whether the university was negligent when it allowed Mance, who had suffered from epileptic seizures since 1996, to go on the trip and sit unsupervised next to a flickering campfire.
Before the trip, for part of his required Wilderness Survival class, Mance filled out a medical disclosure form noting he had epilepsy and took valproate, an epilepsy-therapy drug. But no doctor reviewed the form, according to his expert witnesses.
The university should have taken special precautions to protect Mance, or barred him from the camping trip altogether, wrote Gary Nussbaum, an outdoor education expert, in the filing. Typically, such trips require participants to be seizure-free for a year before attending, Nussbaum wrote.
Mance attended the camping trip with no special precautions. All went well until the students were separated and told to maintain a campfire all night. Then, in the early morning, another student heard Mance calling for help. A student and an instructor found him sitting up against a tree, with terrible facial burns, according to the filing.
A helicopter flew Mance to Ohio State University Medical Center, where he began a series of burn treatments that later took him to Boston Shriners Hospital.
When you have skin grafts like he does
you have to be very careful exposing yourself to sunlight or chlorine
Miller said, adding this makes it extremely difficult for Mance to get an outdoor recreation job.
The case will go to trial before Judge Craig Wright on Sept. 14.
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Dave Hendricks
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Mance after receiving severe facial burns
