Malpractice Suit : Blind Girl’s Case Settled for $1 Million

Four-year-old Annie Arredondo will never see the new home her parents plan to buy.

Annie is the victim of a hereditary disorder called retinoblastoma, a congenital ailment that causes malignant tumors, which required the removal of her eyes at age 2.

On Wednesday, her parents, Roy and Diana, agreed to an out-of-court settlement of their malpractice claim against Annie’s doctor estimated to be worth $1 million. Annie will receive $1,500 a month for life, and the parents will get a $75,000 lump-sum payment, which they said they will use to buy a house.

The lawsuit claimed that the doctor failed to diagnose the disorder when Annie was born and that her sight probably could have been saved if the diagnosis had been made.

Said She Was Concerned

Because Annie’s father had lost an eye to the disease, Diana Arredondo said, she was particularly concerned when Annie was born and asked her pediatrician, Dr. Patrick Poon of Orange, to check for the condition.

“When I was in the hospital I asked them to check her eyes, but it was never done,” she said. “Poon said he checked her eyes, but he didn’t.”

Poon denied any wrongdoing in the case. His lawyer, Mark V. Franzen, said that Poon was never told about the father’s problems with the disease.

“Dr. Poon consented to settle the case against my advice,” Franzen said. “His reasoning was the overwhelming sympathy factor for the little girl. Lord knows, she’s blind and it was through no fault of hers.”

Franzen said his client was insured for $1 million by the Southern California Physicians Insurance Exchange, which will pay the settlement. Poon was concerned that he might lose more than the limits of the policy if the case went to trial, Franzen said.

Ironically, the Arredondos’ lawyers, Sharon and Stephen Derkum, said Wednesday that they also advised their clients not to settle. Stephen Derkum said the final demand before the settlement had been for $2 million.

Sharon Derkum said there was a 50% chance that Annie would have the disease because her father had been a victim.

In cases in which the disease is diagnosed at birth, radiation treatment saved victims’ sight in at least one eye 75% of the time in 1982, the lawyer said. Today, advances in laser therapy have increased the success rate. If untreated, the disease can be fatal.

“At age 4 months, when the disease was found, Annie had eight tumors, four in each eye,” Sharon Derkum said. “By that time, they were very large and radiation treatment was precluded.”

Roy Arredondo, a construction laborer, said that he and his wife agreed to the settlement because of the risk involved in taking the case to a jury.

The settlement was worked out before Orange County Superior Court Judge Jerrold S. Oliver.

“The important thing is Annie will have a house, and the monthly benefits will pay for special education for the blind,” Sharon Derkum said.

Franzen said he had planned to call medical experts to the witness stand to testify that, even if the condition had been discovered at birth, the normal treatment in 1982 would not have saved Annie’s eyesight.

“The latest studies show that victims of family-inherited retinoblastoma are at an incredibly high risk, no matter when the diagnosis is made,” he added.