Couple Settles Wrongful Death Suit With NAS Jax
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A couple who filed a $15 million lawsuit against the government for the wrongful death of their 15-month-old son, has settled their lawsuit for $900,000.
Thomas and Jessica Hugaboom, who've moved to Virginia, reached the out-of-court agreement last week. They said through their attorney, they did not want to go through a trial.
In 2004, their 7-month-old son, Michael, died of meningitis that was undiagnosed after three trips to the emergency room while his father was stationed at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
In their lawsuit, the couple says they brought Michael to the emergency room in February 2004 because of a high fever. As the fever got worse over the next three days.
Different doctors told them the child had chicken pox, would be fine, and that they shouldn't return because the baby was contagious. No blood work or urine samples were done to determine that the baby had meningitis and an entire body-wide bacterial infection.
Within a week the baby was dead.
This is just the latest in an entire string of medical malpractice incidents at NAS Jax. A $60 million negligence award to the parents of another baby boy born at NAS Jax with severe brain damage.
In August 2005, a judge awarded a blind Jacksonville boy and his parents $5.9 million after finding that his blindness was caused by negligence in the emergency room.
In 2003, a woman claimed she was given an unnecessary hysterectomy after a misdiagnosis. And a Jacksonville woman died of a heart attack there after undergoing elective hip surgery done without a cardiac evaluation.
NAS Jax is the fourth- largest medical hospital in the Navy and serves roughly 200,000 service men and women and their eligible beneficiaries.
Under federal law, the family’s lawyers receive 25 percent of the settlement. #