Infant’s Family Awarded $75.9 Million for Malpractice That Led to Brain Damage

Pellicer v. St. Barnabas Medical Center

An Essex County jury awarded $75.9 million to the family of an infant left brain damaged and disabled from oxygen deprivation during surgery.

Casey Pellicer, then 4 months old, was recovering at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston from the removal of a spinal cyst on September 25, 1998, when his oxygen tube became dislodged. He was without oxygen from 5 to 15 minutes.

The suit charged that pediatric intensive care nurse failed to supervise properly the child or to act promptly on discovering the tube out of place, and that another nurse, in order to stop the baby from jostling the tube again, negligently administered a paralyzing drug, Norcuron, suppressing his ability to breathe. The suit also charged the attending anesthetist with failing to act timely after the tube was out of place and the doctors for negligently supervising the anaesthetist.

Pellicer, 6 years old, is quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair, nearly blind and cognitively delayed. He requires nursing care around the clock.