Hospital Must Pay Couple $27 Million
A couple whose son was left blind and brain-damaged after a car accident and surgery were awarded $27 million in a lawsuit against Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Billy Jacobs, then 17, had been recovering from injuries received in the 1986 car accident when his parents brought him to Yale-New Haven because of recurring fevers.
In their lawsuit, the Jacobses said Yale-New Haven misdiagnosed Billy, performed unnecessary surgery and improperly allowed a resident physician to participate in the surgery. The lawsuit claimed the resident punctured Billy’s aorta while using a surgical clamp, causing profuse hemorrhaging and brain damage.
Billy Jacobs, now 29, is blind, unable to walk on his own and cognitively impaired.
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