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Family of 6-year-old gets $900K settlement
By VINCE LUECKE
Attorneys claim ER doctor was negligent


TELL CITY - A Kentucky family, whose 6-year-old son allegedly died from negligent care from an emergency-room physician contracted to work at Perry County Memorial Hospital, will receive $900,000 under terms of a settlement, the family's attorneys said last week.


According to the Louisville, Ky., law firm of Bubalo, Hiestand & Rotman, the insurance carrier representing Dr. Uzoma Nwachukwu agreed to the settlement with the family of Johnathon Elder.


Tim and Melissa Elder filed suit in Jefferson County, Ky., claiming Nwachukwu, a Nigerian-born physician, failed to properly treat their son when he was brought to the hospital Feb. 27, 1999, with a rash and fever.


Nwachukwu wasn't an employee of the hospital, but worked for PhyAmerica, a staffing service that provided staff physicians for the county hospital's emergency room.


PhyAmerica is now in bankruptcy protection.


The Elders' attorneys said the child was suffering from meningococcemia, a potentially fatal bacterial infection that requires urgent treatment. They allege Nwachukwu, who was on duty at the time, was negligent in failing to recognize the seriousness of the child's infection. "Johnathon's condition would have been easily recognizable to any adequately trained emergency room doctor, but Dr. Nwachukwu failed to recognize the urgency," said Beverly Glascock, an attorney who represented the Elder family.


While at the hospital, Glascock said a rash on the child's body grew from "a few small pin pricks" under his arm to blood-filled sacs. "Still, Dr. Nwachukwu did nothing to treat the growing infection," she alleged.


Johnathon Elder was transferred to St. Mary's Medical Center after the parents demanded a transfer to another hospital, but the child died early the next morning of septic shock.


Perry County Memorial Hospital and Norton Enterprises Inc. - affiliated with Alliant Management Services - were also named defendants in the suit. The suit against Norton remains, but attorney Craig Johnson, a Louisville physician who represents Perry County Memorial, said Friday the hospital was dismissed from the suit.


The family has filed an appeal of that dismissal, but no decision has been reached. Johnson said the hospital acted responsibly in allowing Nwachukwu, who was licensed in four states and worked at least two Louisville hospitals, to practice in it emergency room. "He was checked out like all other physicians. The same procedures were followed," Johnson said.


Nwachukwu, who gave a deposition in the case, later left the country.


Copyright © 2005 2003 Perry County News All Rights Reserved.

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June 29, 2005

Family gets $900,000 settlement in son's death
By LIBBY KEELING



The family of Johnathon Elder - a 6-year-old boy who died in Evansville after allegedly receiving negligent care at Perry County (Ind.) Memorial Hospital - has received a $900,000 settlement, according to his parents' lawyers.


Attorneys with Bubalo, Hiestand & Rotman in Louisville, Ky., said Preferred Professional Insurance Company in Nebraska settled on behalf of Dr. Uzoma Nwachukwu, who left the country after the lawsuit was filed in 2001.


When contacted Tuesday, Preferred Professional Insurance Company could not immediately confirm whether it carried Dr. Nwachukwu's policy. According to the attorneys representing Elder's family, Nwachukwu failed to diagnose and treat Johnathon's serious bacterial infection when he was seen in the emergency room at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Tell City on Feb. 27, 1999. After Elder's parents demanded the boy - whose small rash had developed into large blood-filled sacs covering his body - be transferred to another hospital, he was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center. There, he was diagnosed with meningococcemia, but his internal organs already were severely damaged. He died of septic shock early the next morning, St. Mary's attorney Beverly Glascock said.


"It was a case of negligence. Basically, Dr. Nwachukwu missed completely what was going on with this young fellow," Glascock said.


Nwachukwu was a contract physician with PhyAmerica, a physician staffing company now in bankruptcy, the Elders' attorneys said. The attorneys also maintain Perry County Memorial Hospital and its management company, Norton Enterprises Inc., had not adequately reviewed the doctor's credentials and qualifications.


Litigation remains pending in Kentucky against both the hospital and its management company.


Gregory Bubalo, one of the family's attorneys, said Nwachukwu lived in Kentucky while working at Perry County Memorial, and Norton is located in Kentucky. Johnathon's parents, Tim and Melissa Elder, formerly of Hawesville, Ky., now reside in Hardinsburg, Ky.


"One of the primary reasons the Elders filed a case is to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else," Bubalo said.


Perry County Memorial's attorney, Craig Johnson of Louisville-based Whonsetler and Johnson, said he believes the case was filed in Kentucky to avoid malpractice caps in Indiana, and the hospital is not interested in settling.


According to the Health Professions Bureau, Nwachukwu's Indiana medical license is active but will expire June 30.