2017 Ohio State Fair accident victim dies
Columbus native who suffered brain injury dead at 19.
Jennifer Lambert, COLUMBUS — 19, died Friday of liver failure. She had been hospitalized since suffering a traumatic brain injury when the Fire Ball ride at the Ohio State Fair broke apart last year.
The 19-year-old woman, who had been medically unable to return home for a single night since the Fire Ball ride broke apart at the Ohio State Fair more than a year ago, was finally about to leave the long-term care facility where she had been, one of the attorneys involved in her case said.
But Lambert never got that chance to move to an apartment where she could still receive the necessary care. She died of liver failure at Western Reserve Hospital in northeast Ohio, having been transferred there from the Geneva Homestead in Geneva after medical complications arose, said James E. Arnold, an attorney who represents one of Lambert’s court-appointed guardians.
Arnold said that as word of Lambert’s death spread this weekend, people were incorrectly making the assumption that it was a direct result of the brain injuries she suffered July 26, 2017, when a gondola full of riders broke apart from the fair ride and hurled to the ground. He said an autopsy has been ordered and it should help answer some additional questions.
“Obviously, liver failure doesn’t happen naturally to most 19-year-olds and she was in a susceptible state. Something happened and we simply don’t know what it is yet,” he said. “I know that we will see some developments over the next week because I want to know what happened, how it happened and why.”
Lambert’s family, which includes a twin sister, could not be reached.
One of her guardians, attorney Scott Hayes, had called Lambert “a really sweet lovable person.” An uncle, Bruce Lenox, previously had told The Dispatch that Lambert had been at the fair with her boyfriend the night she was hurt. At that time, in August 2017, Lenox said that Lambert was in a coma, and that her family was staying by her bedside and praying.
It’s been more than a year since the incident, and the Fire Ball wasn’t at this summer’s state fair.
Tyler Jarrell, 18, died the night of the incident, when he was thrown from the gondola as it broke loose. In addition to Lambert, six others were injured.
The Fire Ball is a ride that swings people like a pendulum from side-to-side, rising 40 feet above the ground as the riders are spun. Lambert, of Columbus, was not in the gondola that broke loose, but was riding in another one.
In March, a $1.8 million settlement was filed on behalf of Lambert, who was to get $1.1 million of it. Arnold said Saturday that the money is in a trust and there likely would already have been provisions for what happened to it upon her death. There have been other settlements for damages and loss, too.