Christensen & Jensen, P.C.

Lillian Birt was in the ICU with respiratory failure, septic shock and reduced heart function. Her children agreed to discontinue life support because they understood from her doctors that her condition was terminal and treatment was only prolonging her death. It was not terminal, and there was a high likelihood she would have recovered. She died about eight hours later.

Amy Herzog worked at Jupiter Bowl in Kimball Junction. During a Park City Mountain Resort employee party in April 2019, a resort employee performed a 360-degree spin and released his ball into her lane while she was freeing a stuck ball from the gutter, crushing her left hand. Three surgeries left her with a permanently deformed hand that cannot form a fist. A Summit County jury found Vail Resorts 80 percent at fault and its employee 20 percent, awarded $2,402,000, and found the employee was acting within the scope of his employment. The trial judge later vacated the employer-liability finding and cut the award by 20 percent, but the Utah Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in 2025 and reinstated the full judgment.

Morley Reed Sprague had advanced multiple sclerosis and lower-body paralysis and could not reposition himself. He entered Avalon Care Center with a small stage-one pressure ulcer on his right buttock. Within a month it had deteriorated to exposed bone and become infected. He never recovered and died 22 months later.