Mundelein woman paralyzed at O'Hare in storm files lawsuit
The family of a 24-year-old Mundelein woman paralyzed from the waist down when an O'Hare International Airport pedestrian shelter collapsed on her during an August storm is suing the city of Chicago and the Chicago Department of Aviation for negligence, her attorneys said Friday.
Tierney Darden had just returned home on a flight from Minnesota and was waiting for a bus with her mother and sister near Terminal 2 at the O'Hare lower street level when a storm rolled through the Chicago area about 2:40 p.m. Aug. 2, attorneys said in a news release Friday.
The pedestrian shelter the three women waited under was "visibly rusted, decaying, and generally in a decaying condition" and was "inadequately attached to the ground," attorneys said in the lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Civil Court. The lawsuit claims the structure became loose and fell onto the three woman, leaving Darden paralyzed.
Tierney Darden's mother, Trudy Darden, and sister, Tayah Minniefield, also suffered minor injuries in the collapse, the lawsuit said.
Officials for the Chicago Department of Aviation have not returned emails and phone calls regarding the lawsuit.
Darden, a dancer and student at Truman College in Chicago, suffered dislocated vertebras and a severed spinal cord, and was left paralyzed from the waist down, attorneys said in the news release.
The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 for injuries and emotional stress for each woman.
"Tierney is a dancer and she is dealing with the realization that, if she wants to dance, she'll have to find another way," her father, David Darden, said after a news conference at the law offices of Salvi, Schostok and Pritchard in Chicago. "She has gone from dancing upright to lying in a hospital bed."
Tierney Darden, a 2009 graduate of Vernon Hills High School, did not attend Friday's a news conference. David Darden said his daughter remains in a rehab facility learning to use a wheelchair.
"Her life has forever changed," David Darden said. "Right now, we are looking at how we will be able to care for her after she is released from the rehab center."
Tara Devine, one of the attorneys representing her case, said the family hopes this tragedy calls attention to the condition and maintenance of the airport's shelters.
"Tierney's life will never be the same because of the airport's and city's failure to protect her," Devine said. "She will never be able to use her legs to dance, which was one of her passions."
The powerful Aug. 2 storm that blew through the Chicago area killed one man and injured 22 people at a festival in Wood Dale when the tent they took shelter under collapsed. An indoor softball dome in Rosemont also was damaged by the storm.