Subject:  Re: Update on Beaumon tHospital case |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 04/14/05 5:46pm
In reply to:
Chris
's message, "Update on Beaumon tHospital case" on 04/14/05 12:34pm
Another stories with Fieger quotes. Also, the judge in this case has proven pro-Fieger in past trials.
Trial begins over burned baby
Web-posted Apr 13, 2005
By STEPHEN FRYE
Of The Daily Oakland Press
For nearly the first two years of his life, Nathan Laporte could not be held by his mother, his family's lawyer told a jury Tuesday during a hearing on a lawsuit against William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where the boy was born.
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Nathan spent those first years receiving thousands of injections of steroids and pain-killers, attorney Geoffrey Fieger said.
And the child has never recovered from the hospital fire that nearly killed him, Fieger said.
Two women on the eight-person jury put their hands to their mouths when Fieger displayed his first picture of the badly burned baby, enlarged on a giant poster board.
"He would never be caressed and touched like a normal baby," Fieger told the jury during his opening statements at a trial before Oakland County Circuit Judge Gene Schnelz that may last six weeks. "The most important thing for a baby is touching and holding."
Now 7, Nathan remains on a ventilator to help him breathe.
His parents, Shelley and Craig Laporte of Macomb Township, contend the flash fire that exploded during a minor surgical procedure on Oct. 4, 1997, damaged the baby's lungs. After the fire, he remained in the hospital for nearly two years.
However, lawyers for Beaumont said the lung damage existed before the fire, coming from "severe prematurity."
"Virtually nothing that is wrong with Nathan Laporte ... is from this 30-second fire," said defense attorney Keefe Brooks, saying the boy's continued problems come from "chronic lung disease due to prematurity. That's what this case is all about."
Fieger is seeking millions of dollars for the family, asking the jury to weigh future increases in health care for Nathan. He said that in the seven-and-a-half years since the fire, the bill for the required 24-hour care has been $5 million. Over a possible lifetime, Fieger told the jury that the cost of the care could be as high as $278 million.
During jury selection, Fieger asked prospective jurors if they could make a ruling of $100 million in damages if he proves his case.
The hospital admits a mistake was made with the fire, Brooks said. And he said Beaumont will pay what the jury determines to be appropriate for the burns Nathan suffered. But the damage to the lungs and subsequent developmental problems were there before the fire, Brooks said.
"If he had suffered a respiratory injury, he was so close to the edge, he could not survive the fire," Brooks said, saying there has been no medical evidence of injury to his airway.
One thing seems certain: The jury will be inundated with testimony from many medical experts.
Born nearly 16 weeks premature, Nathan was one of four quadruplets born to the Laportes, who already had an older child.
Fieger said the couple was ready for the tiresome work of four new children but was excited about the possibility, having support from family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. They were even prepared, he said, for medical concerns as it became apparent the four were going to be premature.
"Like fine crystal, they knew these were precious babies," Fieger said.
Coming so early, all four, he said, had to have help breathing. Fieger said Nathan was the first to be allowed to breathe on his own.
"Nathan was the strongest," Fieger said.
Later, a problem required surgery and additional procedures. During a follow-up procedure to put a nutrition tube into his neck a cautery device ignited a gauze and sparked the fire.
"The proof is in the pudding," Fieger told the jury. "You'll see these three other beautiful quads. While his brothers and sister get up to take a bus to school, Nathan is on tubes. He won't go to school."
Testimony is expected to begin Thursday afternoon.
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