February 10, 2010 Volume: 156
Issue: 28
In federal court
The mother of a boy with severe brain damage who claimed
that a pediatrician at a federally funded community health
clinic failed to appreciate her son's excessive weight
loss days after his birth and to take steps to
prevent dehydration has settled her lawsuit against
the federal government for $7.6 million, according to
her attorney.
On Oct. 24, 2005, Ramona Gonzales arrived at Chicago
Family Health Center with her infant son for his follow-up
exam 10 days after his birth, when the child's body weight had
dropped 23 percent from his weight at birth, said Nicholas C. Syregelas of
Nicholas C. Syregelas & Associates who, along with Peter A.
Papoutsis and Kyle R.
Kasmarick, represented the
plaintiff.
A heart murmur
was detected and the pediatrician referred the child
to a pediatric cardiologist, but the appointment was
for a month later, according to Syregelas. Meanwhile,
Syregelas said, the boy's parents became increasingly
concerned with the child's weight and feeding problems, and so
they returned to the center on Nov. 7, 2005 without an
appointment.
According to Syregelas, after the child was weighed, the
couple was given a handwritten note directing the family to an
area hospital, where physicians subsequently
concluded that severe dehydration led to a condition
that caused the baby to suffer a severe hypoxic brain injury.
Syregelas said the boy, who also sustained cerebral
palsy, today requires the permanent support of a ventilator
and feeding tube, and 24-hour-a-day home nursing care.
The government was represented by former assistant U.S.
Attorney Samuel
D. Brooks. U.S. District Judge
William
J. Hibbler approved the
settlement on Feb. 4. The case is Alessandro
Castillo v. United States of America, No. 07 CV
4379. |