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SEATTLE – Seattle federal judge awarded $ 10 million to the family of a severely disabled child who was born after a nurse at the community clinic inadvertently gave the mother a flu shot instead of an injection contraceptive.
The Seattle Times reported that U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik last week awarded the child $ 7.5 million for medical, educational and other expenses, in addition to $ 2.5 million in damages. for his parents.
After a trial earlier this year, Lasnik found that mother Yeseni Pacheco did not want to get pregnant and would not have been in 2011 if the nurse at the Neighbourcare health clinic had given her the right vaccine.
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The federal government is responsible for damages because the clinic, which serves low-income and uninsured patients, is funded by the federal government.
Family attorneys Mike Maxwell and Steve Alvarez have described the case in court documents as a “wrongful pregnancy” and “illegal life” case. They said the case was an uphill battle and sharply criticized the government for refusing to accept responsibility in the first place.
The mother of the child, Yeseni Pacheco, did not want to become pregnant and would not have been in 2011 if the nurse at the Neighbourcare health clinic had given her the appropriate vaccine.
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“Luis and Yesenia Pacheco are happy to be on the verge of receiving the necessary funds for the extraordinary medical care and training of their daughter,” they wrote in a statement. “It has been a long, difficult road for the family.”
Emily Langlie, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, who defended the trial, said some of the delays were necessary to ensure that medical experts can accurately measure the extent of the child’s disabilities.
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Pacheco, a Salvadoran refugee who moved to the United States at the age of 16, had gone to the clinic for a quarterly injection of Depo-Provera, a hormone used for birth control.
A nurse at the clinic who had administered walk-in flu shots all day apparently did not check Pacheco’s record and instead gave him the flu shot, the court found.
Pacheco only discovered the error when she called to make her next appointment, more than two months later. At that time, she was pregnant.
The child is now 8 years old and in third grade at a school in the Everett area, north of Seattle.
According to court documents, she suffers from a birth defect known as bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria (PMG), which has resulted in cognitive delays, slowed speech and language, epilepsy, problems with vision and d ‘other complications.
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She has an IQ of 70, according to family lawyers. Maxwell said she will live a normal life and require some level of care and support throughout her life.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice are asking that part of the reward be placed in a “reversion trust” that would go to the government if the girl did not need it.
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