Brain-Damaged Girl Could Collect Up to $17.5 Million

A 6-year-old Reseda girl who suffered profound brain damage while in the care of an intern just after her birth could receive as much as $17.5 million under a settlement completed Thursday with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The intern failed to recognize for several hours that the infant was not getting adequate oxygen and did not know how to draw a blood sample that would have shown the problem, the child’s lawyer said.

Attorney Bruce G. Fagel said that his plaintiff’s injury resulted from a breakdown in the hospital’s “control system” for patient care.

In a structured settlement approved Thursday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dion Morrow, the girl, Lauren Ruben, will receive $500,000 immediately.

The settlement calls for the medical center to place $900,000 in an interest-paying annuity account that will make monthly payments to the child for the rest of her life. The $17.5-million figure is based on a 70-year life expectancy and an annual 3% increase in the monthly payments.

Ronald Wise, a spokesman for Cedars-Sinai, acknowledged that the $1.4-million base amount of the settlement could generate the larger amount, but he would not comment further on the case.

Fagel said the settlement amount is not extremely unusual. What is unusual, he said, is that the original diagnosis of the cause of Lauren’s brain damage, “persistent fetal circulation,” was traced to negligence.

Fagel said that Lauren had been examined by her physician after her birth and left in the care of an intern and nurse. He said it took five hours to determine that the infant was in distress and to complete a blood test that revealed that her brain was not receiving sufficient oxygen.

“In most cases parents hear that term and think it means there was something wrong with their child, so they just take it home,” Fagel said. “but the cause of the persistent fetal circulation was the baby was not getting enough oxygen.”

The settlement assures that Lauren--who is retarded, has cerebral palsy and cannot walk or talk--will receive the 24-hour care and physical therapy she needs to survive childhood, said her mother, Barbara Ruben.

“It means we have the future now,” said the 43-year-old Ruben. “I was really frightened about what would happen to my daughter. Now I know she will have the best of care.”

Ruben, who is divorced, said her salary as a part-time synagogue secretary could not begin to cover her daughter’s needs.

Fagel said that children in Lauren’s condition who do not receive expensive, intensive therapy often die before the age of 10. Such children, when placed in institutions, rarely live beyond age 20, he said.

Barbara Ruben said her daughter, an only child, lives at home and attends a special public school for disabled children for eight hours each weekday, as required by state law. Ruben said she now provides all additional care the child requires.