A South Carolina woman has won $10 million in a lawsuit against Walmart after she stepped on a rusty nail in a store location and had to have her leg amputated.
April Jones was in a Florence, South Carolina Walmart when she walked on the nail, which was on the floor near some wooden pallets, according to The Washington Post. She rushed herself to the emergency room, where she found out the wound was infected and had to amputate her toe. Later, her foot turned black due to more severe infection and Jones had to have her right leg amputated, just above the knee. She filed a lawsuit in 2017.
After a five-day trial and deliberating for an hour and a half, the jury found that Walmart was liable for the injury. Jones will use the money to pay for the medical bills she incurred from her amputation.
Jones is now wheelchair-bound, which she says has dramatically impacted the quality of her life. The lawsuit says that her injury “has resulted in her loss of enjoyment of life and change in her personality, all to the permanent detriment to her health and physical wellbeing.”
A deposition from 2018 also said that because she is confined to a wheelchair, Jones can’t play with her grandchildren or take part in church events. “I was supposed to actually go to Disney World with my grandson … but I won’t be going,” she said. “I feel it would … lessen the fun for everybody else and I don’t want that,” she added, saying she would have to be pushed around the park in her wheelchair.
Walmart’s attorneys have since requested a new trial.
