Columbia, S.C.Exactly one year after a little 4-year-old girl with cerebral palsy died from complications, a jury ordered the Piedmont Medical Centre in South Carolina to pay $4.4 million in damages to her grieving family. "If the medical malpractice award in this case seems large it's because the damages to the child in this case were horrendous," says attorney Kenneth Suggs.
Little Sierra Wilson's life could have been very different, but it got off to a tragic start.
In 2003, Sierra's very pregnant mother arrived at the Piedmont Medical Centre 3 days before she was scheduled to be induced, complaining of nausea and vomiting. The hospital left a young nurse to watch the mother, Robin Wilson, and monitor the baby's heart rate. The fetal monitor showed a baby in distress that should have been delivered immediately, but the nurse, still in training, misread the information.
"The doctor signed off on the readings, but now admits he didn't actually see the monitor readings until recently," says Suggs. "When the baby was born she had suffered severe brain damage due to a lack of oxygen."
Four Years of Hell
The next four years were an unmitigated hell for Sierra Wilson and her parents.
During her short life, little Sierra Wilson had to be fed through a tube and she had as many as one hundred seizures a day. "The child had a seizure every time a door slammed or there was a loud noise," says Suggs. "They tried to control the seizures but it was a 24-hour-day job for the parents."
Prior to the delivery, the Wilsons had requested the doctor do a tubal ligation immediately after the birth. Despite the baby's condition, the doctor went ahead and tied Robin Wilson's tubes. There will be no more children for the Wilsons.
Robin Wilson and her husband Brice have two other children, both from Mrs. Wilson's first marriage. Baby Sierra was Brice Wilson's only natural child and their only child together.
"Given all the circumstances and their medical bills," says Suggs, "the award is very fair."
The hospital admits no liability and plans to appeal the decision.
Attorney Suggs has a leadership role in the medical malpractice and pharmaceutical departments at his firm Janet, Jenner & Suggs and has an outstanding record of settlements and verdicts on behalf of hundreds of clients.
His firm's product liability department is currently involved in some of the approximately 400 ongoing lawsuits against the makers of gadolinium, a medical imaging contrast agent once used in MRIs, alleged to have caused nephrogenic system fibrosis--a debilitating condition that can be lethal.
"That ain't right"
Raised in the poor cotton mill town of Piedmont, South Carolina along the Saluda River where one of 10 people still lives below the poverty line, attorney Kenneth Suggs has made good use of the law degree he earned with the help of the GI bill that helped so many people get an education after serving in the military. "The first lawyer I ever met," recalls Suggs with touch of amazement still, "was a professor at law school."
The son of a single parent mom, he hung around the town square on warm southern evenings where people gathered after a hard day at work. "There were always men from the mill there who had lost an arm, or hand or finger in the factory," he says. Suggs remembers how they would say, 'Get an education, no one can ever take that away from you.' "They there were good people, just trying to provide for their families, but they felt powerless and like they had no control over anything.
"I got the idea real early on—that ain't right."
Suggs has been a relentless champion of consumer rights for almost 30 years.
Kenneth Suggs graduated from Clemson University with a B.A in economics (1968) and earned his J.D. at the University Of South Carolina School Of Law. (1975). He served 4 years in the Navy, including a 2-year tour during the Vietnam War.