A jury awarded almost $3.2 million in damages to a family whose child died after a misdiagnosis at CoxHealth Branson.
One-year-old Kyler George came into the Urgent Care at CoxHealth Branson on June 5, 2017, because Kyler had turned pale, was cold & clammy, and was lethargic. A physician’s assistant at the Urgent Care diagnosed an ear infection without doing a complete examination and sent the family home. Kyler George died three hours from a blood clot in a coronary artery aneurysm.
The family filed a lawsuit against CoxHealth, alleging that the hospital system was negligent in not diagnosing Kyler correctly when he visited a CoxHealth primary care clinic five months before his death.
Kyler presented with a fever that had lasted for 10 days, which is a primary symptom for Kawasaki disease. Kawasaki disease causes inflammation in the blood vessels of infants and children. Untreated Kawasaki disease weakens the walls of arteries in the heart, leading to blood clots and acute heart failure.
A nurse practitioner treated Kyler during the primary care visit and diagnosed him with pneumonia from an X-ray despite the lack of pneumonia symptoms beyond fever.
Kyler’s family claimed in the lawsuit that because CoxHealth did not make the correct diagnosis, the lack of treatment resulted in blood clots and aneurysms which ultimately lead to his death.
The law firm representing the family, Johnson, Vorhees, and Martucci, said in a statement that CoxHealth did not make any settlement offer and even called an economist as a witness to testify that the “cost of raising a child should be considered and that Kyler’s tragic and untimely death actually spared the family the expense of raising him.”
The Taney County jury found CoxHealth at fault and awarded the family $3,185,070 in damages. The amount was later reduced to around $1.8 million, under the state’s cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.
“If nobody is held accountable, how do things change? You have to fight for what is right,” Kyler’s mother Kassie McAtee said in a statement. “This award has sent a clear message to CoxHealth that the public demands a better standard of care for every infant and child. I did not think it would take a jury trial to send this important message, but the result is worth the fight.”
CoxHealth spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell sent KWTO a statement that CoxHealth disagrees with the verdict.
“We cannot comment on litigation in detail due to patient privacy restrictions,” the CoxHealth statement says. “However, we can share that after a thorough review, we believe the care given in this situation was appropriate. This belief is also supported by external experts in the field. While we support our judicial system, we do not agree with this decision. That does not change the tragic reality, and our sympathies remain with the family during this time.”