Page 9 - Verdicts and Settlements Hall of Fame: Medical Malpractice

#4

Case:
Debes v. St. Vincent’s Medical Center –

Staten Island

Attorney: Richard J. Sgarlato

Firm: Sgarlato & Sgarlato PLLC

Date:
8/24/2012

Verdict: $103,075,618

By Len Maniace

Attorney Richard J. Sgarlato said timing was a key element in
the $103 million malpractice jury award to the family of Stephanie
Debes, who suffers from cerebral palsy following her premature birth.

Unlike similar suits that usually go to trial when damaged children
are still children, Debes was an articulate 17-year-old and quite able

to tell the jury how her condition had diminished her life. “When she
got off the witness stand I told Stephanie she was the best witness
I ever had,” recalled Sgarlato.

Stephanie Debes and her twin sister Amanda were born Jan. 22, Sgarlato said, because the family could not ind an attorney to take
1995 in the 25th week of their mother’s pregnancy. That was one day the case. It was further delayed by St. Vincent’s bankruptcy and
after their mother Catherine Debes reported abdominal pain and then its loss of the case ile, the attorney said.

went to St. Vincent’s Medical Center on Staten Island. The family
charged the hospital staff had missed early signs of contractions Particularly poignant was Stephanie’s testimony about growing
and failed to provide medication to delay the births long enough to up with a sister who was leading a normal life, a painful reminder to

improve Stephanie’s
Stephanie of how her life had been damaged,
chances of being
Sgarlato said. “She gets on the stand and she
born healthy. Instead
starts, ‘when I was a kid I would look out the STEPHANIE DEBES AND HER TWIN SISTER

Catherine was given
window and see my sister playing with other
a Benadryl for the
kids, and then as I grew up more I’d see my AMANDA WERE BORN JAN. 22, 1995 IN THE
pain.
sister get dressed to go out, and my sister had
25TH WEEK OF THEIR MOTHER’S PREGNANCY.
a boyfriend, and my sister did this, and my
sister did that.’ ”
The award by a
state Supreme Court

The jury award broke down into $17 million jury in Staten Island
for past pain and suffering and $60 million for future pain and suf- was reported to be the largest in that borough’s history. Stephanie
fering, with the rest going to medical and assistive living costs and cannot walk and needs help with many basic routines such as bath-

lost wages. The family will receive much less, however, because of ing, though she is a student at St. John’s University.
St. Vincent’s bankruptcy. Citing conidentiality Sgarlato declined
to disclose inal igures but said it was limited to the hospital’s The case is unusual because it went to trial so long after Stephanie’s

insurance coverage of $16 million and some portion of a $ 4 million
birth and well after the expiration of a 10-year statute of limitations.
bankruptcy fund.
The lawsuit was not iled until nine years after the twins’ births,

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