Emergency Room / Bowel Injury

J.P. vs ER

The parents of a three year-old Downs' syndrome child took her to their local emergency room late at night because of fever and vomiting. The emergency room evaluated the child and found her to be severely dehydrated and quite ill. They told the parents that the child needed to be transported to a university hospital. The parents requested an ambulance or helicopter but had no insurance. The hospital asked for cash or credit card. The parents had no money and were forced to drive the child to a higher level hospital in the middle of the night across miles of desert in their own car without an IV line running.

During the long drive through the night the child developed seizures. When she arrived at the university hospital, the physicians were shocked that such an ill child had arrived without appropriate medical transport. They flew the child by emergency medical helicopter to yet another higher level hospital but her gangrenous bowel could not be saved.

The child and her family recovered on of the highest awards for malpractice in the history of the High Desert area. Part or the case was appealed and the appellate court ruled that the first hospital had violated both local regulation and federal law in transporting such a sick child without medical care.