Paralyzed Ex-Bus Driver Living in Hotel Settles for Enough Money to Buy Home

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | 1

An ex-bus driver left paralyzed after a work injury has settled with her employer's insurance company for hundreds of thousands of dollars, giving her the funds to buy an accessible home and move out of the hotel she and her four children have lived in on insurance's dime for the past year and a half, NBC-TV 4 reported.

Christina Eastland, formerly of Long Beach, has been living at a Residence Inn for the past 19 months while negotiating a home purchase with Safety National, the Orange County Transportation Authority’s insurance company, NBC-TV 4 reported.

As part of Eastland’s workers’ compensation benefits package, a court ordered Safety National to purchase Eastland a wheelchair-accessible home near her medical facilities, NBC-TV 4 reported.

While negotiating the purchase, Safety National put up Eastland and her four children in two hotel rooms, as Eastland could not navigate her Long Beach home in a wheelchair, NBC-TV 4 reported.

Living in a hotel put a strain on the family, Eastland and her children told NBC-TV 4’s investigative team in February.

“My kids shouldn’t have to be put in this type of situation,” Eastland tearfully told Channel 4 reporters.

In the months following the broadcast, Safety National opted to settle with Eastland instead of continuing to attempt to purchase a home, NBC-TV 4 reported.

Eastland did not disclose the exact amount of the settlement, but said it was in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” range, NBC-TV 4 reported.

Safety National told NBC-TV 4 in February that it had presented Eastland with a list of housing options, but she had rejected them. Eastland said she had chosen one, but Safety National had rejected it.

Safety National said that was true, but that particular home shouldn’t have been listed, as it had not been vetted, NBC-TV 4 reported.

Eastland injured her spine in 2014, slipping and hitting her back on a pole while she helped a passenger off the bus. An MRI after the injury revealed “a mass that was pressing up against my spinal cord like an abscess,” Eastland told NBC-TV 4 in February.

She underwent surgery in an attempt to stave off paralysis, which doctors told her was certain if she didn’t have the procedure, NBC-TV 4 said. She ended up losing use of her legs during recovery anyway, NBC-TV 4 reported.