Jury Awards $47 Million To Parents of Brain Damaged Child
A jury awarded more than $47 million to a child who suffers severe brain damage as a result of an anesthesiologist’s failure to quickly halt a cardiac arrest. The jury found that Wyckoff Heights Medical Center anesthesiologist Dr. Stacey Smith did not perform timely intubation of a 23-month-old patient, Markaysha Demendonca, who was suffering an asthmatic/seizure attack that led to cardiac arrest. Markaysha’s mother alleged that the child wasn’t intubated until about 20 minutes after the incident. Smith contended that the intubation occurred within 70 seconds, but Markaysha’s attorney countered that the extent of the brain damage indicated that quick intubation couldn’t have occurred. The jury agreed, and on June 8, Markaysha was awarded $47,365,732.