Mich. Family of Burned Baby Gets $8.25M

[shawn703]

A jury awarded $8.25 million Friday to a family whose child was badly burned as a premature baby when his hospital bedding caught fire.

Lawyers for Craig and Shelley Laporte argued that the child — a quadruplet — suffered serious burns and long-term lung damage about three months after his birth in 1997, when a doctor at William Beaumont Hospital used a cauterizing tool and sparked a flash fire.

Nathan, now 7, cannot talk or dress himself, cannot breathe on his own and has learning disabilities. In a wheelchair and hooked to his ventilator, he appeared in court Tuesday for closing arguments in the six-week case.



more...
http://www.journal-news.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Burned_Baby.html



Is this why we need tort reform?
:sarcasm:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Yes, with disabilities like that

$8.25 million is about what he'll need for lifetime care.

[jayfish]

2. OMD!

That's one of the saddest stories I have ever read. I'm glad they are going to be taken care of.

Jay

[jmm]

3. The family will be lucky if

that pays for all the medical care this poor child will need throughout his life.

[AP]

4. Flamable material + open flame -- isn't this an area of saftey that we've

really gotten down pat as a society?

[MountainLaurel]

5. You'd think wouldn't you?

A good friend had a job once as the safety manager of an Air Force station in a remote area in the northern Midwest. Most of the mechanics were civilian locals. She used to regale us with stories about workers who had no idea why she was upset when she saw them storing gasoline in an old coffee can 5 yards away from a blowtorch in an aircraft hanger (which, I believe, was sitting next to a missile silo).

:eyes: :scared: :eyes:

[Senior citizen]

6. The kid won't get a dime.

The award will be overturned or reduced to a token sum (enough to pay the lawyers) on appeal.

As I just posted elsewhere (fingers getting tired), juries often award damages to victims. That's why the pukes insist on getting all their crappy appellate judges. The case will be appealed and it will go before somebody like Priscilla Owen.

MSM keeps trumpeting these big awards, but somehow forgets to mention it when they get overturned, reversed, or reduced to trifling sums that barely cover court costs. Reich-wing appellate court judges NEVER let large jury awards stand. What do you think the whole filibuster deal was about? Juries and lower courts often identify with the victims instead of with the corporations who harmed them. The pukes have made sure that the appellate courts are stacked with judges who will side with the corporations.