Eight minutes made a difference that will last for all of Jakob Medley’s life.
“When you’re not getting oxygen, that’s a long time,” said Ken Suggs, an attorney for Jakob and his grandmother and legal guardian, Rachel Louis.
Suggs and his law partner Gerald Jowers, both of Janet, Jenner & Suggs in Columbia, known for its birth injury litigation practice, won an $8.45 million jury verdict on Oct. 21 for Jakob following a trial in Hall County, Georgia. It stands as the largest verdict ever awarded in the county, according to Jowers and Suggs.
They argued that staff at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center waited too long to call a neonatal resuscitation team during Jakob’s birth in 2008. They said Jakob, who had an umbilical wrapped around his neck during his birth and was deprived of oxygen, waited eight minutes for medical staff to give him a breathing tube.
“He’d be a normal kindergartner today,” said Jowers.
Jakob, now 5, suffers from cerebral palsy, seizures and developmental delays. He is disfigured, unable to walk or talk and is fed through a tube in his stomach, according to Jowers and Suggs.
One of their experts determined that Jakob would not live beyond his 40th birthday. The defense’s expert opined that he’d die at 19.
In Georgia, juveniles can only sue for medical expenses that they are expected to incur after their 18th birthday, but not before that time. Their parent or guardian has a cause of action for expenses during childhood. But Jakob’s mother waited too long to sue and the statute of limitations expired on her claim.
“A lot of times people don’t realize they have a legal case until it’s too late,” Jowers said.
An attorney for the hospital, Thomas Cole of Whelchel, Dunlap, Jarrard & Walker in Gainesville, Georgia, did not respond to an interview request.
According to Jowers and Suggs, hospital staff should have realized that Jakob was being deprived of oxygen during delivery based on more than five hours worth of readings from fetal monitoring equipment.
“Given what they were seeing on the heart monitor all morning long [while Jakob’s mother was in labor] they should have called for the resuscitation team,” Jowers said.
The team was busy helping a woman in another surgery room, Suggs said. He and Jowers argued that the hospital should have had backup staff available. They also said that the hospital failed to call a physician to perform a cesarean section, which would have saved Jakob.
The hospital’s insurer is expected to cover the verdict, which Jakob can collect immediately. The award, which includes damages for pain and suffering and lost future wages, will provide Jakob with the medical care he needs for the remainder of his life, Jowers said.
“Verdicts like this send a message to hospitals and medical staff everywhere that standards of medical care are there to protect patients,” Suggs said. “No child in an emergency situation should have to wait.”
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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Case name: Medley v. Northeast Georgia Medical Center
Court: State Court of Georgia, Hall County
Date of verdict: Oct. 21
Amount: $8.45 million
Attorneys for plaintiff: Gerald Jowers Jr. and Ken Suggs of Janet, Jenner & Suggs in Columbia
Attorneys for defendant: Thomas Cole, Whelchel, Dunlap, Jarrard & Walker of Gainesville, Ga.