The Sakla Law Firm Reports New Orleans Jury Awards $10 Million To Medical Malpractice Victim

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A twelve person jury in the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish awarded Mr. Dominic Sousa $10 million in damages against defendants Prime Healthcare Services-Garden City Hospital, LLC d/b/a Garden City Hospital and Dr. James Prosser for medical malpractice which permanently crippled and deformed Mr. Sousa's arm and hand when he was a child.

In 2002, Mr. Sousa suffered a green stick fracture to his right arm as a two-year-old child when he fell during a Mother's Day party. He was taken for treatment to Children's Hospital, where he was treated by Dr. James Prosser. Dr. Prosser was an out-of-state resident physician employed by Garden City Hospital of Michigan; he was completing a training rotation at Children's Hospital at the time he treated Mr. Sousa.

Dr. Prosser reduced Mr. Sousa's fracture and placed a cast on the arm, but committed medical malpractice by excessively manipulating the fracture causing swelling, not obtaining sufficient guidance from the medical teaching staff supervising him, and discharging Mr. Sousa with a substandard cast that had a plaster spike which impinged on Mr. Sousa's antecubital fossa causing compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is a restriction of arterial blood flow to the forearm while damming the venous return, resulting in progressive increase in compartmental pressure of forearm leading to muscular contracture and nerve damage commonly known as Volkmann's Ischemic Contracture.

Mr. Sousa's parents returned him to the hospital due to excessive swelling in Mr. Sousa's hand approximately 19 hours after he was discharged, but the permanent damage to Mr. Sousa was already complete to his dominant right arm and hand. The injuries required salvage surgery, to remove the dead muscles and release the few remaining hand muscles.

The jury trial was presided over by the Hon. Ellen M. Hazeur, District Judge. The case is captioned "Adam Sousa, Individually, and on Behalf of His Minor Son Dominic Sousa, and Connie Sousa versus James Prosser, D.O. and Prime Healthcare Services-Garden City Hospital, L.L.C. d/b/a Garden City Hospital", docket number 2007-6655.

The plaintiff was represented by The Sakla Law Firm, attorneys Sherif K. Sakla, M.D., J.D. and Stephanie C. Reuther, Esq.; and Capitelli & Wicker, attorneys T. Carey Wicker, III, Esq., J. Alex Watkins, Esq., and Vincent Odom, Esq.

Sherif K. Sakla, M.D., J.D. (504-528-1800) and [email protected]

SOURCE The Sakla Law Firm