Vested Interest - January/February 2005 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

The testimony below was given by Ms. Donna Harnett to a medical malpractice task force of the 93rd General Assembly in Springfield, on January 11, 2005.

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My name is Donna D. Harnett. I currently reside in the 7th Senate District and the 14th Representative District.

I am the mother of four boys, an 8 year old, a 7 year old and twins who will turn 6 tomorrow. My eldest son Martin is severely disabled. I mention my other children, because I want you to know that not a day goes by when I look at them as they play and think about what Martin’s life could have been. You see, Martin’s life was destroyed the moment it began as a result of medical negligence.

The doctor involved in my delivery at the hospital in Cook County is a teaching physician at a prominent hospital. My case against him was not the first; there were several others with a similarly disastrous outcome. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the cases at the time. Currently, this doctor still retains his license to practice medicine, and he is listed on the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation website as never having been disciplined.

Martin’s disabilities are very severe. He is a quadriplegic. His movements are limited to his turning his head slightly in each direction, moving his arms a few inches in a sweeping manner, and lifting his right leg a few inches. He does not walk. He is unable to talk, although he does make a few noises that I am able to interpret as words. He wears diapers and always will. He was able to eat by mouth up until a surgery for his stomach many years ago. Then, he lost that skill and is now fed through a button in his stomach. He will most likely need to have a tracheotomy within a year because he is now losing his ability to breathe. He is completely dependent on others for all of his care and he always will be.

I filed a lawsuit against all of those involved in my prenatal and delivery care, and I settled out of court before trial. There are some people who think that settling a medical malpractice lawsuit or receiving a jury award is comparable to winning the lottery. They obviously have no concept of the suffering my son goes through.

Let me tell you about this lawsuit lottery winner’s life. He has at least one doctor appointment per week. He receives physical therapy, not only at home but also at school every week. I am called by the school at least every two weeks to come and comfort him, because their only alternative is to call for an ambulance. Obviously, I must drop everything and tend to his needs. He is unable to socialize with others. He cannot run or play with his brothers. His existence consists of laying or sitting in a wheelchair, completely helpless.

We end up at the emergency room at least once a month, because something as simple as a cold will land him in the intensive care unit at the hospital. Because we are there so much, we are now recognized by the majority of the staff as we walk through the halls.

I want you to know that we would give it all back, if I could just have my son as he should have been. But that, of course, will never happen, and that is the exact reason why there should not be a cap on medical malpractice awards. He can never be whole again. But what he can have as a result of the settlement is the possibility of some level of normalcy in his life.

From the description of my son’s problems, you can probably surmise that our lives are very far from typical. The money from the settlement is used to restore my son’s life to some normalcy, to give him a quality of life that he would not have without it, and the money is used for that purpose alone. As he has grown and gotten older, his needs have become more expensive. To have been limited in the dollar amount of what we settled for would have had far reaching consequences as it would have impacted what we have even now.

When my son was little, I was able to lift him in and out of my little car and put his stroller in the trunk. Now we use an adapted van with a wheelchair lift that cost $57,000 new. That van was purchased using the money from the settlement. It is the only way that we can travel anywhere.

If we want to go to the zoo, a park, a museum or anywhere else as a family, we usually need to have help. Someone must push Martin’s wheelchair, so I can hold the hands of my other children. Because there is no one else in our lives, I have to pay someone to help. The money to pay someone comes from the settlement. Without that money, we would have been prisoners in our home, unable to go anywhere with Martin.

We currently live in a first floor apartment. Everyday, I carry my son up and down a flight of stairs in my arms to his wheelchair that is stored in the front. He currently weighs 60 lbs. The bathroom is small. My son no longer fits in the bathtub, because I can barely bend his legs. And, everyday, I am still amazed that I can lift him up and over the edge of the tub while on my knees. We will be moving soon to a home that will be made accessible. Just the cost of making the home accessible on the first floor will cost approximately $100,000, the amount does not include the purchase price of the home.

The money to buy the home and to make it accessible will come from the settlement. Without that money, I would be forced to think about the possibility of sending my son to an institution where he would grow up in the company of strangers. The settlement makes it possible for my son to stay at home with his siblings and myself who love him very much.

My life too has been changed. I have missed work so many times, because of my son’s appointments, medical emergencies and hospitalizations that I have had to leave several jobs over the years and so I am underemployed. I am currently in school. It is not unusual for me to have to leave in the middle of a class, because of Martin, and my grades have suffered for it. Childcare is an issue, because whoever sits for him has to be trained. And it is hard to find anyone who would want to change the diaper of an eight year old.

These are but a few of the numerous examples of how the money from my son’s medical malpractice claim has been spent. If we had been limited by a cap on what we would have received, my son would most likely not be living at home now in my care, and he would not, in my opinion, have a quality of life that he deserves.

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President Bush visited Collinsville, Illinois on January 5, 2005. Patients who have been harmed by medical negligence asked for an audience with him. He refused.

Kevin Conway, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association