Jury Finds Negligence Following Mysterious Death of 3-Year-Old
By Brittany Golledge
Published on December 09, 2005
A St. Louis jury has awarded 1.5 million dollars to the parents of a young boy who died of an unknown ailment at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in 2002.
After a 10-day trial, the jury apportioned fault between the boy's pediatrician, Dr. Sarah Griffin, and a St. John's pulmonary disease specialist, Dr. Lee R. Choo-Kang.
According to court documents, the parents of the young boy, Dr.'s Joelle and Joshua Calhoun, brought their son to the pediatrician because he had a simple cough. The boy died 14 days later. Doctors were unable to determine the cause of death.
The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged that the boy's pediatrician had acted negligently by failing to communicate important information to the other doctors treating the boy. According to the Calhoun's attorney, Dr. Griffin knew that the boy's mother had seen blood in her child's urine, but the doctor never communicated that information to hospital staff. She and Dr. Choo-Kang were also accused of delaying a second blood test that likely would have indicated that the boy needed a blood transfusion.
Defense attorneys maintained throughout the trial that the boy's vital signs were stable and doctors would have had no way of knowing that his health would decline so quickly.
Two other doctors named in the injury lawsuit were cleared of any wrongdoing.
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