Jury awards 8-year-old $26 million in civil suit
By Rich Riggs
STAFF WRITER
HAYWARD - An 8-year-old girl who was rendered a quadriplegic and whose brain was severely damaged by a bacterial Infection she contracted in infancy has been awarded $26 million in a civil suit against a St. Rose Hospital doctor.
An Alameda County Superior court jury made the award Wednesday to Stephanie Wright, whose family now lives in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, but lived in Hayward when Stephanie became ill. The jury deliberated for two days after six weeks of testimony in Judge John Kraetzer's court.
The jury decided that her doctor, Michael Pattee, should have diagnosed her as suffering from H-flu meningitis when she came to the St. Rose Hospital emergency room at the age of 8 months in 1987. Stephanie had a fever, had been fussy and had been pulling at her ear.
According to the girl's lawyer, Randall Scarlett of San Francisco, the disease is common and is curable if it's caught in time. About 25,000 youngsters each year contract H-flu meningitis, he said.
If the disease had been properly diagnosed, Stephanie would be a normal child today, Scarlett said. Instead, he said, "she is trapped in a body that doesn't work." Pattee had "misdiagnosed Stephanie Wright as having a cold and fever" and "failed to order proper tests," court papers said.
She functions at the intellectual level of a child of about 18 months, Scarlett said. She is fed through a
Lawsuit: Settles with family
tube that goes directly into her stomach. According to court documents, "she cannot even expectorate and must have her throat suctioned frequently." She cannot walk or move her arms or even sit up without the support of a harness, court records said. She could live in her condition for another 60 years, Scarlett said.
The jury awarded $6 million for pain and suffering and emotional distress, even though state malpractice reform legislation passed after a "malpractice insurance crisis" in the 1970s limits such awards to $250,000, Scarlett said.
The cap shouldn't apply to stephanie's case, he said.
The jury awarded an additional $20 million to provide full-time care for the rest of her life. Stephanie's parents, Emile and Mulimas Wright, have been personaly providing her care, Scarlett said.
On Nov. 13, attorneys will return to Kraetzer's Court to discuss whether the $250,000 limit should apply and to decide how the $20 million for care should be paid out.
The girl's family also sued St. Rose Hospital, which settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, Scarlett said.
Neither Pattee nor his lawyer Stephen Lucey of Oakland, returned a reporter's phone calls Thursday.
In court documents, however Lucey argued that Stephanie appeared healthy when her parents brought her to the St. Rose Emergency room on July 28, 1987.
"At that time, physical examination revealed an alert and active female with no abnormal neurological signs," Lucey argued.
Two days later, court records say, she was taken to Children's Hospital in Oakland and diagnosed with meningitis.
