Another Operation for Girl Amputee

Jessica Lynn Esquivel, the 6-year-old Imperial Beach girl whose arms and legs were amputated after a routine case of chickenpox led to a secondary infection and then to toxic shock, underwent another operation this week, to treat an infection in her elbow.

Meanwhile, her father, Felix Esquivel, 28, said Thursday in an interview that this is the worst crisis “by far” that he and his wife, Lisa, 25, Jessica’s mother, “have ever gone through. . . . Sometimes, I wonder if we’ll ever get back to a normal life.”

Esquivel said that Jessica, a kindergarten student at Oneonta Elementary School, “is a little bit down but doing OK. She’s doing all right, but it’s a hard day-to-day thing. We’re just happy to see she’s alive.”

Esquivel said that he and his wife have hired an attorney, medical malpractice lawyer David D. Miller, who admitted a lawsuit is being contemplated.

“Nothing has been filed, and we don’t anticipate a suit being filed for a period of time,” Miller said. “But one thing is absolutely certain. We will not file anything against anyone unless we’re convinced of a very high likelihood of success. This is so serious, and the emotional effect on all concerned is so powerful. And whether anyone’s at fault, the Esquivels sure feel awful.

“At this juncture, we have to be sensitive to the Esquivels,” he said. “They need time to come to grips with this matter emotionally. It’s a series of overwhelming events. I want time for them to adapt before we throw them back into the teeth of another caldron, which is what lawsuits are. Even if it’s a slam-dunk in terms of causation, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or fun.”

Jessica incurred chickenpox March 27, shortly after her 4-year-old brother, the Esquivel’s only other child, had contracted the virus and gotten well. She was taken to the emergency room of Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista and later to a walk-in clinic in Imperial Beach run by a pediatrician in private practice. The Esquivels say Jessica received inadequate treatment there.

The girl was admitted to the emergency room of Sharp Memorial Hospital with a high fever and what doctors called a “bluing of the extremities.” Several hours later, she was admitted to Children’s Hospital, next door to Sharp, after undergoing what doctors called “full cardiac arrest,” in addition to liver, kidney and respiratory failure.

They labeled this the onset of toxic shock syndrome, triggered by a secondary infection that had entered through one of the pox-caused lesions on her body.

On April 18, in what doctors said was an effort to save her life, her arms were amputated at the elbow and her legs at the knee.

Just last week, her condition was upgraded from critical to fair, and Children’s officials said Thursday that she continues to improve.

She’s been moved from the pediatric intensive care unit to a private room, where her parents maintain an around-the-clock vigil. Doctors now say they expect her to have full liver, kidney and respiratory recovery. Both they and her attorney say she did not suffer brain damage.

Despite what happened to Jessica, Felix Esquivel said Thursday, “Anger is not what I feel, fear is what I feel.” He acknowledges that the future is clouded, full of hard work and pain, and just thinking about it leaves him weary, “incredibly so . . . but we’re just so happy our little girl’s alive.”

Esquivel said he does not blame the doctors at either Sharp Memorial or Children’s for what happened to Jessica. Instead, he credits them for saving her life.

“I have no problem with the doctors here,” he said.

“There is no potential quarrel with them,” Miller said of the staff at Sharp and Children’s. “We believe that they did their very best. But this is a lawyer talking, not a physician, and, while we don’t anticipate anything in that regard, we can’t rule it out unequivocally. But at this time, we don’t foresee it.”

Miller said the Esquivels actually came to see him before Jessica was admitted to Sharp, fearing her condition was serious and that doctors before the ones at Sharp and Children’s had “erred” in their work.

As to Scripps Memorial in Chula Vista, and the pediatrician at the walk-in clinic, Miller said, “That’s a tough situation--what happened prior to the girl’s admission to the E.R. (emergency room) at Sharp. We’ll be looking at all those events; that’s what we’re now evaluating, exhaustively.”

Miller said he had “no idea” how much money it would take to guarantee Jessica’s rehabilitation. He said the family had only begun to discuss the use of artificial limbs with physicians at Children’s, as well as other experts, and could not say whether her care would cost tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

At the moment, he said the family is overwhelmed by “doctors and the media and attorneys. . . . We have to give them time to recover.”

Felix Esquivel said that, on alternating nights, he and his wife take turns sleeping in Jessica’s room, trying to calm her fears, to assure her that, somehow, everything will be fine, that, once again, she will see her friends, who already have raised thousands of dollars to help with her care.

Esquivel, an auto mechanic who grew up on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, said he and his wife are unable to work. They’re living with his wife’s parents, who live in Imperial Beach.

“On those nights,” he said, “one of us doesn’t sleep too good, but we have to do it. I don’t know how much Jessie knows, but a lot of the time, she’s scared. They been talking to us about artificial limbs, and Jessie’s seen this little girl using one.

“My hopes? For her to have as normal a life as possible. My fears? Oh, God, I don’t know, I just don’t know. I guess I worry about how she’ll take all of this later on. I honestly don’t know what the future holds.”