15-year-old brain damaged by tick bite during school trip to China awarded $41.7 million

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A federal jury in Bridgeport ruled in favor of Cara Munn, who is now 20.

A Conneticut student left brain damaged and unable to speak after being bitten by a tick on a class trip to China was awarded $41.7 million in compensation.

Cara Munn was 15 when, in the summer of 2007, she traveled to the Asian country with classmates from the posh Connecticut boarding school Hotchkiss.

As they journeyed through a rural area of the country, she was was bitten by an insect – which led to her developing tick-borne encephalitis.

Her father, Orson Munn III who heads advertising agency Munn Rabot, claimed the school failed to take precautions against ticks and didn’t get his daughter the correct medical attention.

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THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL

The Hotchkiss School is an independent boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut.

Munn’s attorney Antonio Ponvert III said Hotchkiss “failed to take basic safety precautions to protect the minor children in its care”.

He added that “Cara’s injuries were easily preventable” and said he hoped the case will help alert all schools sponsoring overseas trips that they need to check for disease risks.

Hotchkiss’s attorneys in turn said that the disease was so rare they “could not have foreseen a risk,” reports CBS.

A federal jury in Bridgeport ruled in favor of the student, who is now 20, on Wednesday after an eight-day hearing. The college prep school said it would appeal the award.

Read more: NY Daily News

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