In one of New York’s largest medical malpractice verdicts ever, a Bronx jury Friday awarded $120 million to a woman who suffered brain damage after hospitalization in three medical facilities, according to The New York Times.
The verdict in state Supreme Court was for a lawsuit lodged on behalf Jacqueline Martin by her mother. Martin, who is now 45, was treated in three different hospitals in February 2004, The Times reported. And during that one-month period, when Martin initially was seeking medical treatment for a seizure, she suffered brain damage, the suit alleged.
The jury found that Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx was 50 percent liable for Martin’s disability, and that Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn was 40 percent liable, according to The Times.
A third hospital, Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, was held to be 5 percent liable, while one of its neurologists was held 4 percent liable, The Times reported.
The jury then found that Martin, a mother with two children, herself was 1 percent responsible for the injury she sustained.
New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corp. told The Times that it plans to appeal the verdict.
Martin’s lawsuit alleged that medical staff improperly managed her medications; did not quickly respond when she had several emergencies; and didn’t provide “essential treatments,” according to The Times.
Martin had a bad reaction to one of the anti-seizure medications she was given, and quickly developed swelling in her face and throat.
The Times noted that even though Martin had been making just $40,000 a year, and had racked up $583,000 in medical bills paid by Medicaid, the jury awarded her $10 million in lost wages and $5 million for medical costs.
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