About five years ago, an 11-month-old boy contracted bacterial meningitis. Two days in a row, his mother took him to the emergency room in Connecticut’s neighboring state of Pennsylvania, but he was given a diagnosis of an upper respiratory infection. The child didn’t get much in the line of treatment.

The third time the boy was taken to the emergency room with a rapid heartbeat, abnormal respiratory rate and a high fever, it would take over an hour before the doctor saw him. The blood work came back almost midnight showing that the boy had meningitis. It was still another three hours before the antibiotics were administered.

By then, though, the damage to the boy’s brain had been done. He will turn 7 in January, but in terms of language development, he is like he is 3 years old. He currently suffers from learning and developmental delays, hearing loss, loss of balance and language disorder.

The trial lasted four weeks and the defendants in the case argued that the boy’s symptoms were similar to that of bronchitis and the treatment given for bronchitis seemed to help his condition. The jury, though, disagreed. It only took them three hours to find for the boy and his mother.

The 10.1 million verdict includes $7.5 million for pain and suffering, $1.5 million for future medical care and $1.1 million for loss of earnings.

If you suffer an injury or illness made worse by medical care that doesn’t meet the accepted standard of care, you may have a case for medical malpractice. An attorney can provide more information.

Source: philly.com, “Jury awards $10.1M in malpractice case against CHOP,” Chris Mondics, Nov. 20, 2015