Trucking firm faces $700k bill after worker’s scratch triggers amputation

Days later, the skin around the wound had turned black. By April 22, Gandy could barely walk or speak clearly when he pulled back into the Shelbyville yard. His manager, thinking he was drunk, took him to the emergency room. Doctors stabilized him but determined he needed more specialized care, and transferred him by medical flight to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It was there that physicians identified the true extent of what was happening.

At Vanderbilt, doctors found that Gandy had contracted a Group A streptococcal infection that had developed into necrotizing fasciitis – the condition commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria. Gandy’s left arm was amputated the next morning. His right arm required multiple surgeries. By the time he was discharged on May 21, 2023, his medical bills had topped $700,000.

Marten Transport denied the claim. The company argued the scratch may not have happened at work at all, noting that Gandy had spent the prior weekend building a curio cabinet at home using a hammer, nails, and a saw. It also pointed to Gandy’s significant health problems – advanced vascular disease, a subsequent lung cancer diagnosis, a long history of smoking – and argued that these conditions, not the scratch, were the real reason a minor wound became a catastrophic injury.

The employer’s infectious disease expert backed that position, conceding that a cut did provide the entry point for the bacteria, but maintaining that Gandy’s compromised immune system and his failure to seek care quickly enough were what drove the infection to such devastating extremes.

Gandy’s medical expert disagreed. He testified that Group A strep simply cannot invade tissue without a wound to enter through, that the laceration was the direct cause of the infection, and that the amputation was primarily a result of what happened on that delivery route. Even after being made aware of Gandy’s full medical history – including the cancer – the expert did not change his opinion.