Jury awards $12 million to woman with brain injury

[February 12, 2010]  POMONA, Calif. (AP) -- A jury awarded $12 million on Thursday to a Southern California woman who was left in a vegetative state after she waited hours at a hospital before being sent elsewhere for surgery to remove an air-rifle pellet from her brain in 2007.

The Pomona Superior Court jury found that Greater El Monte Community Hospital was negligent in treating Jessica Ramirez, 22. Her mother, Ofelia Reynaga, brought the suit on behalf of her daughter.

Ramirez, who was studying to be a police officer, was shot in the head with an air gun at a family member's house in September 2007. She was conscious and walked herself into the emergency room.

Her attorney, Dr. Bruce Fagel, said she waited for five hours before being flown by helicopter to a Pasadena hospital where she was rushed into surgery and her current "minimally conscious" state could have been avoided with prompt surgery.

Bleeding and pressure on Ramirez's brain caused permanent damage and she now requires 24-hour care, Fagel said.

The neurosurgeon who finally operated on her at Huntington Hospital testified that her outcome would have been better if they had been able to operate sooner, Fagel said.

Hospital officials said their emergency room staff acted properly in treating Ramirez and plan to appeal the verdict.

"Despite the verdict, we strongly believe the evidence presented in this case shows that our emergency room staff provided compassionate, timely and clinically appropriate care to a patient who had suffered a catastrophic head injury," the written statement from Greater El Monte Community Hospital said.

The lawsuit named AHMC Healthcare, Inc., which owns the hospital and five others in the eastern San Gabriel Valley.

The hospital's insurance carrier refused a settlement offer proposed by a judge for significantly less money than the jury awarded, Fagel said.

"The hospital gambled and lost," he said.

Ramirez's mother wants to use the money to her bring her daughter home to live with her, Fagel said. But while the verdict is being appealed, the payment is on hold.

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Information from: San Gabriel Valley Tribune, http://www.sgvtribune.com/

[Associated Press]

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