Judgment Against D.C. Called ‘Staggering’
A Washington, D.C. Superior Court jury ordered the District government yesterday to pay $24.2 million to a brain-damaged 7-year-old girl whose heart stopped after she received poor treatment at D.C. General Hospital.
District attorneys plan to appeal the amount of the award, which includes $8 million for Lynteakia Beal’s future care and $16 million for her pain and suffering. She lives in a D.C. group home and is profoundly retarded.
“It’s a staggering number. Even if there’s absolutely no question about our liability, the number is arguably unreasonable,” said Walter Smith, a senior attorney for the D.C. government. “It doesn’t mean for a moment that anyone defends what happened, or that anyone begrudges her a dime.”
The medical malpractice award – to be reviewed by Superior Court Judge Richard A. Levie and possibly by the D.C. Court of Appeals-is the largest in the city in memory, said several lawyers.
“I’m not aware of any bigger ones in the District of Columbia,” said Jack Olender, a leading malpractice lawyer in the city. “I’ve had some $10 million verdicts, but that’s topped them off. It shows that juries are responding appropriately to very severe injuries”
Howard A. Janet, Lynteakia’s attorney, told the jury on Friday that this case is not an example of “frivolous medical malpractice claims” that some politicians target in campaigns for tort reform.
“This is an example of the worst medical care imaginable,” Janet said, “resulting in the most horrifying injuries imaginable.”
Lynteakia was 16 months old in March 1992, when she was taken to D.C. General’s emergency room with severe respiratory problems. As her condition worsened and her airways became heavily clogged, the jury learned, doctors failed to insert a tube in time to aid her breathing. Her heart stopped for eight to 10 minutes.
“From a perfectly healthy 16-month-old baby, you have a child who is a spastic quadriplegic, has cerebral palsy, has a seizure disorder, some visual and hearing impairment and is incontinent,” said attorney Donna Wulkan, one of Lynteakia’s guardians. “She basically functions at a 5-or-6-month-old’s level.”
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