This is not how a 77-year-old Golan Heights resident expected to finish his shopping at the local supermarket.
He describes what happened at the supermarket in a lawsuit recently filed on his behalf by attorneys Rafael Almog and Yoav Gafni of the Almog-Shapira law firm, against the Clal insurance company, which insures the supermarket against third parties.
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In the video captured at the supermarket, the accident is seen in all its stages, how the plaintiff stood in line at the checkout, how another customer placed a basket behind him, possibly to take up space in line. It can also be seen how the plaintiff suddenly remembered that he had forgotten a certain product, turned back to collect it, and his feet bumped into the abandoned basket, causing him to lose his balance and be thrown hard to the ground.
Customers who were there came to his aid, and he was quickly taken to Poriya Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured right hip. The man was hospitalized and released the next day.
Three days later, he underwent surgery at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, and was hospitalized for about two weeks in the orthopedic department.
According to the lawsuit, after his release from hospitalization in the orthopedic department, the plaintiff was transferred to a geriatric rehabilitation department, where he was hospitalized for about a month for rehabilitation. After that, he continued the rehabilitation process in a community setting at the health insurance company.
According to his attorneys, Attorneys Almog and Gafni, since the accident and despite the medical and rehabilitation treatments he underwent, the plaintiff has suffered from severe pain in the hip joint of his right leg and significant limitations in his range of motion. He also suffers from pain in his left leg due to the transfer of loads to it, as well as numbness along the length of his right leg when sitting for extended periods. Since the accident, he has also had difficulty going up and down stairs and walking long distances, and uses a walking stick intermittently.
Attached to the lawsuit was a medical opinion from orthopedic specialist Dr. Ziv Waserbrot, who determined that the plaintiff was left with a permanent disability weighted at a rate of 24 percent.
According to Attorney Almog and Gafni, until the accident, the plaintiff was a completely independent person who even worked for a living as a renovation contractor and led a normal life.
The accident, it was claimed, changed his life beyond recognition, and from a happy and lively person he became a painful and disabled person. It was further claimed that due to the functional difficulty, the plaintiff was forced to stop working.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the insurance company "Clal" to pay the plaintiff compensation for bodily injury in the maximum amount within the court's authority (up to 2.5 million shekels).
The lawsuit is currently being heard in the Magistrate's Court in Katzrin.
