A jury would have given a 6-year-old Zion boy with cerebral palsy $23.3 million for brain injuries he suffered at birth at St. Therese Medical Center in Waukegan, but a deal reached before the late Thursday verdict capped the award at $12 million.
Brandon Jones’ umbilical cord was compressed during labor in January 1998, cutting off oxygen to his brain. He cannot walk or talk.
“If he were delivered 15 minutes sooner … he would have been normal,” the family’s lawyer, Terrence Carden of Chicago, said Friday. Nurses failed to notify a doctor quickly enough that the baby was in distress, Carden said. The Lake County jury held the hospital’s former parent company, Provena Health, responsible and awarded damages after a three-week trial. But the deal reached before the verdict capped the award, said Circuit Judge Stephen Walter, adding that it also had provided for the family if the jury had found the hospital not liable.
Under the agreement, the health-care company will not appeal.
“We’re pleased with the jury’s verdict,” said Brandon’s mother, Gladys Jones, 44, who quit a factory job to stay home with her son.
The money will go toward new therapies for Brandon that are not covered by insurance, she said. She and her husband, Donald Jones, 46, expect their son will require lifetime care.
“It’s very hard, because he doesn’t communicate at all. He doesn’t walk. He doesn’t crawl. He doesn’t sit by himself,” said Jones, who has trouble picking up her 42-pound son.
Clinton Giese, spokesman for Mokena-based Provena, said there were no winners in the outcome. St. Therese, now part of Vista Health, is no longer affiliated with Provena.
“We strive for flawlessness in the treatment of every patient under our care, but our humanity makes this extremely difficult,” he said. “It’s that same humanity that makes us deeply regret any suffering felt by patients under our care, regardless of who caused it.”
Gladys Jones had a healthy pregnancy before arriving at St. Therese on Jan. 8, 1998, Carden said. While she was in labor, the baby’s umbilical cord was compressed before the physician was summoned for an emergency Caesarean section, he said.
The nurses should have realized the baby needed help once a monitor showed a rapid decline in his heartbeat, Carden said.
