Jury Awards $12.5 Million to Paralyzed Boy

The jury awarded $9.8 million in economic losses for the future cost of Justin's care and his lost earning capacity. An economist had testified that the cost of care would be about $28 million, based on a life expectancy of 70 years. The jury also awarded $2.7 million for pain and suffering.

Augustus Southworth III, a lawyer for the hospital, said hospital staff provided appropriate care for Justin, now 12. He said the medical crisis the boy suffered was rare, with one expert testifying that the odds of it happening were one in 62 million. “The child was monitored exactly correctly,” said Southworth, of Carmody & Torrance's Waterbury, CT, office. “He was seen by five doctors a minimum of nine times in approximately 10 to 11 hours, and was seen every hour, at a minimum, by the nursing staff. You cannot monitor anyone any more intensely than that.” Southworth said it was too early to say whether the hospital will appeal the decision. Lawyers for the hospital also could ask Superior Court Judge John Langenbach to set aside the verdict.

The hospital issued a statement saying jury awards such as this one may benefit an individual, but contribute to the crisis of steeply rising malpractice insurance costs. “Requiring … doctors and hospitals to pay for mistakes they didn't make unfairly penalizes the medical community,” the statement said.

The tumor inside Justin's spinal column was slow-growing, but benign. He was taken to the hospital on Oct. 30, 1995. The tumor was diagnosed the next day, and surgery was scheduled for Nov. 3. “A whole team of people was supposed to be following him, and the records show nobody saw him except a third-year medical student who did a very detailed exam the morning after admission and found Justin couldn't move his arms or legs,” Bernard said. “Nobody acted on it. At 10 p.m., he went to the ICU (intensive care unit) because he had stopped breathing.” The tumor swelled and compressed his spinal cord. The blood vessels inside the tumor ruptured. Justin was comatose for 2 days and in the ICU for 50 days. Besides being a quadriplegic, Justin no longer has function in his bowels and bladder, and he does not have enough strength in his muscles to cough. His father, Joaquin Iriondo, sleeps on the floor next to his bed, Bernard said.

The largest medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut was $27 million, awarded to William Jacobs in 1999 against Yale-New Haven Hospital, after a surgical resident punctured his aorta during heart surgery, leaving Jacobs blind and brain-damaged at 19. The next largest verdict, later reversed by the state Supreme Court, was $12.2 million, awarded in 1997 to “Dr. Doe,” a first-year medical student at Yale University School of Medicine, who contracted the AIDS virus from a needle-stick injury. Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder represented the plaintiffs in those cases as well.

In one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Connecticut state history, a jury ordered Hartford Hospital to pay $12.5 million to a boy who became paralyzed from the neck down while awaiting surgery for a spinal tumor 7 years ago.

The award came after a 10-week trial and 5 days of deliberations. The boy, Justin Iriondo, was brought to Hartford Hospital when he was 5 years old after he complained of severe neck pain. Doctors diagnosed a spinal cord tumor, but before he was treated, complications developed and the child became a quadriplegic. After the verdict, Justin said, “I think justice was served.”

The jury agreed with the boy's lawyers that hospital workers failed to adequately monitor him and failed to react to a medical student's documentation that the boy had lost movement of his arms and legs. “He walked into the hospital, and everything went downhill very quickly after that,” said Justin's lawyer, Christopher Bernard, of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, CT. “It was not some sudden event that happened. He was clearly getting worse.”

The jury awarded $9.8 million in economic losses for the future cost of Justin's care and his lost earning capacity. An economist had testified that the cost of care would be about $28 million, based on a life expectancy of 70 years. The jury also awarded $2.7 million for pain and suffering.

Augustus Southworth III, a lawyer for the hospital, said hospital staff provided appropriate care for Justin, now 12. He said the medical crisis the boy suffered was rare, with one expert testifying that the odds of it happening were one in 62 million. “The child was monitored exactly correctly,” said Southworth, of Carmody & Torrance's Waterbury, CT, office. “He was seen by five doctors a minimum of nine times in approximately 10 to 11 hours, and was seen every hour, at a minimum, by the nursing staff. You cannot monitor anyone any more intensely than that.” Southworth said it was too early to say whether the hospital will appeal the decision. Lawyers for the hospital also could ask Superior Court Judge John Langenbach to set aside the verdict.

The hospital issued a statement saying jury awards such as this one may benefit an individual, but contribute to the crisis of steeply rising malpractice insurance costs. “Requiring … doctors and hospitals to pay for mistakes they didn't make unfairly penalizes the medical community,” the statement said.

The tumor inside Justin's spinal column was slow-growing, but benign. He was taken to the hospital on Oct. 30, 1995. The tumor was diagnosed the next day, and surgery was scheduled for Nov. 3. “A whole team of people was supposed to be following him, and the records show nobody saw him except a third-year medical student who did a very detailed exam the morning after admission and found Justin couldn't move his arms or legs,” Bernard said. “Nobody acted on it. At 10 p.m., he went to the ICU (intensive care unit) because he had stopped breathing.” The tumor swelled and compressed his spinal cord. The blood vessels inside the tumor ruptured. Justin was comatose for 2 days and in the ICU for 50 days. Besides being a quadriplegic, Justin no longer has function in his bowels and bladder, and he does not have enough strength in his muscles to cough. His father, Joaquin Iriondo, sleeps on the floor next to his bed, Bernard said.

The largest medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut was $27 million, awarded to William Jacobs in 1999 against Yale-New Haven Hospital, after a surgical resident punctured his aorta during heart surgery, leaving Jacobs blind and brain-damaged at 19. The next largest verdict, later reversed by the state Supreme Court, was $12.2 million, awarded in 1997 to “Dr. Doe,” a first-year medical student at Yale University School of Medicine, who contracted the AIDS virus from a needle-stick injury. Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder represented the plaintiffs in those cases as well.