Jury orders Children's Hospital to pay $26.1 million for failing to treat infant's seizures

OMAHA -- A jury awarded a record $26.1 million medical malpractice judgment Monday against Children's Hospital & Medical Center for failing to properly treat a child who suffered seizures after a fall at a Sarpy County day care.

After a two-week trial and two days of deliberations, a jury ruled that Children's Hospital and Dr. Heidi Killefer improperly discharged Vivianne T. Marousek after the head trauma that resulted in the then-11-month-old suffering seizures at the hospital.

An earlier emergency room physician had properly treated Vivianne, said Patrick and Joseph Cullan, the Omaha attorneys who represented Vivianne and her parents, Andrea and Jacob Marousek. But when Killefer took over her care in January 2017, she concluded that the child had suffered a one-off seizure that wouldn't persist, Joe Cullan said Monday. She released the child from the hospital.

Within 48 hours of her parents taking her home, the child suffered severe seizures and irreparable brain damage, Cullan said.

Read more: https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/jury-orders-childrens-hospital-to-pay-26-1-million-for-failing-to-treat-infants-seizures/article_de808166-e9ea-56bd-970d-0d3baa871f74.html
(Lincoln Journal Star)