$9.4 Million Federal Judgment Against Tripler Army Medical Center for Toddler's Brain Injury

A baby born at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu in December 2003 was later diagnosed with a heart defect. In May 2004, before the defect was repaired, he was admitted to Tripler with a respiratory infection. During that stay his condition worsened, and he went into cardiorespiratory arrest. The lack of oxygen caused severe, irreversible brain damage.

The boy's parents, an Army sergeant and his wife, sued the United States in March 2006 under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Because the federal government is the defendant in such cases, there is no jury. L. Richard Fried, Jr. represented the family, and the case was tried to U.S. District Judge David Ezra.

In a 67-page ruling issued on August 16, 2007, Judge Ezra found that Tripler's staff had failed to monitor and respond to the child's deteriorating condition, including his vital signs and a nurse's notes. The court also faulted the hospital for not reattaching his breathing tube, not performing a blood gas test that would have revealed respiratory failure, not establishing intravenous access, and not weaning him off narcotic medication. The judge concluded that, with appropriate steps, the child more likely than not would not have suffered the arrest and the brain damage that followed.

By the time of the ruling, the boy was 3. He was blind, could not speak or walk, was fed through a tube, and breathed through a tracheostomy. Testing placed his cognitive function at the level of a child under one year old. The family had left Hawaii for Tacoma, Washington, to be nearer to specialized care.

The judgment exceeded $9.4 million. It included nearly $1.4 million for the boy's lost future earnings and more than $5.7 million for his future medical and life care. The court awarded his mother $375,000 for emotional distress and $400,000 for loss of her son's care and companionship, along with about $1.52 million in additional damages. Under federal law, attorney fees in such cases are capped at 25 percent of the award.

Fried told reporters that the problem was a failure of the chain of command, in which someone who needed help could not get it. The family said it held no grudges. An assistant U.S. attorney had maintained at trial that the child received quality care, and Tripler said afterward that it respected the court's decision.

The ruling followed another large Tripler award by the same judge, a $16.5 million judgment the previous year for a newborn injured at the hospital in 2005.