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Parents recover $6.25 in damages following death of daughter

On Behalf of | May 29, 2015 | Failure To Diagnose

When a child falls ill it can be stressful for the parents. Since many people do not have a background in medicine, the logical thing to do is to take the sick child to a doctor or other medical professional for assistance. There is an assumption that those individuals will do their best to identify what is wrong with the child and then provide the care needed. Unfortunately, this is not always the way that things work out. The parents of a 2-year-old girl who live in a neighboring state are all too aware of this.

Their little girl died when her stomach ruptured and sepsis set in. Before she died the girl had been treated for viral gastroparesis and then released. A physician who treated the child indicated that when she arrived at the hospital this diagnosis made sense since she was not in major distress.

Following the girl’s death her parents filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against several entities including the doctors who saw her and the places where the physicians worked. In it they alleged that the doctors repeatedly failed to diagnose that anything was wrong with the girl. A jury agreed and awarded the parents a total of $6.25 million in damages.

Of that amount $50,000 was for mental and physical pain and suffering. $3.5 million was for future loss of earnings and lost earning capacity and $3.7 was damages for wrongful death.

There is no question that this money will do nothing to fill the hole left by the loss of the young girl. It may however bring a sense of closure to her family as they come to terms with her death and move forward with life.

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