Amador County Jury Awards $2.5 Million After Premature Infant Dies of NEC Following ER Discharge

A premature baby girl was 13 days old when her parents brought her to an emergency room in Amador County. She had stopped eating, was fussy, and had blood in her stool, all warning signs of a serious gastrointestinal complication that strikes about one in ten premature infants.

A nurse practitioner examined the child and sent the family home without ordering a complete workup. By early the following morning, the infant's condition had deteriorated sharply. Her parents returned to the hospital. She died five hours later from necrotizing enterocolitis, a condition in which bowel tissue dies and that, when caught in time, can often be managed or treated.

William Callaham of Wilcoxen Callaham took the family's case. He named the nurse practitioner and the supervising physician as defendants and made a settlement demand before trial. They declined. Callaham spent roughly $95,000 out of pocket on expert witnesses to establish what a complete evaluation at the first visit should have included and what the clinical picture that night was telling any competent practitioner.

The Amador County jury returned a verdict of $2.5 million in late 2016. Because the family could show no economic damages beyond funeral expenses of approximately $5,000, and because the 1975 Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act caps noneconomic damages in California malpractice cases at $250,000, the total recovery came to roughly $255,000. Callaham's out-of-pocket litigation costs exceeded what the family received.

The case is one of several Comstock's Magazine examined in a February 2019 investigation into the practical effects of MICRA on California families: a jury's full accounting of a child's death can be reduced to a fraction of its face value before a family sees a dollar.