$1 Million Awarded to Lombard Woman for Decades-Old Dog Bite

GLEN ELLYN, IL — After eight hours of deliberation, a DuPage County Judge awarded nearly $1 million to a Lombard woman for a dog bite she got 20 years ago. The woman, 28, was awarded a total of $940,000 on Thursday for thumb injuries she received from a dog bite she received in 1997.

The woman, Kristen Hayes of Lombard, filed an initial lawsuit in 2008, more than a decade after she was bitten by a dog she was trying to help rescue. Hayes had been sitting on her front porch on April 23, 1997, when when she was approached by an employee of Carriage Animal Clinic, who needed help catching a Lhasa Apso who had gotten free.

When Hayes approached the dog, it bit her right thumb, causing puncture wounds and injuries to her radial nerve. The Lombard woman’s dog bite led to four surgeries over the next decade and chronic pain, according to Daily Herald.

The nearly $1 million reward is a record for a thumb injury and the largest known reward for a dog bite in Illinois, Daily Herald reported.

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