Hospital staff neglects to consider child abuse when infant is brought to ER. $8.4M. Amador County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  Seven-week-old Cree Miller (formerly Luciana Santana) was taken to Sutter Amador Hospital on 1/27/11 by biological parents and maternal grandmother with chief complaint of sudden onset of blood in his mouth, and fussiness. At the emergency department, he was seen by Sutter Amador personnel, and Valley Emergency Physicians Medical Group, Inc., Nurse Practitioner (Trina Haymond) and Shawn Brady, M.D. The chart reflects that there was no blood found in the mouth, but there was a nursing note of facial bruising which the teenage mother claimed was because the infant hit himself in the face with his hands.

  No report was made to child protective services. On 1/28/11, the infant was seen in the family practice clinic.  No record was made of any facial bruising. The family practice nurse practitioner did not note any facial bruising, and did not read the emergency room nursing notes which provided the history that the mother claimed facial bruising was due to the infant hitting himself with his hands. 

  On 2/16/11 plaintiff infant was again taken to the same emergency room with a spinal cord injury that has left him permanently paralyzed, and also with a broken clavicle, two broken ribs and extensive bruising over much of his body.
  

  Cree was removed from his teenage parents’ custody and placed in foster care after he was paralyzed, and was later adopted by his foster mother.  He is now six years old.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  Plaintiff contended that the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA), PC 11166.5, required the hospital and emergency medical corporation to provide its employees with the child abuse reporting law and have them sign an acknowledgment that they knew they were mandated reporters. Further, that various persons were required to report pursuant to PCC 11166.  Further, that Haymond, Brady and another nurse practitioner were required to rule out child abuse (non-accidental trauma) as the cause of the infant's injuries, including by ordering a skeletal survey – which plaintiff contended would have revealed the fractured clavicle and 1 of 2 fractured ribs.

  Former CPS workers testified at trial that, if a report had been made to child protective services when the infant was first seen at seven weeks, Cree would have been taken into protective custody.

   

• Defendant's Contentions:

  The healthcare defendants denied all allegations. The biological defendants were in default.