Tulsa Jury Awards $15 Million to 7-Year-Old Girl Left Permanently Disabled by Untreated Bacterial Meningitis
A Tulsa County jury has awarded $15 million to a 7-year-old girl who suffered catastrophic and permanent brain damage as an infant after a pediatric emergency room physician failed to act on clear laboratory signs of bacterial infection and discharged her without obtaining a blood culture or giving antibiotics.
In December 2018, 5-month-old August Montgomery was taken to a Tulsa-area emergency room for what was described as a respiratory illness with fever, vomiting, lethargy, and decreased urine output. This was her third visit to a hospital over the course of the preceding five days. Although lab results indicated “textbook signals of bacterial infection,” the treating physician diagnosed August with a “possible viral” illness without ordering additional bloodwork or prescribing antibiotics.
Less than 48 hours later, she was rushed back to the same emergency room suffering from partial paralysis and seizures. A lumbar puncture revealed she had bacterial meningitis. She spent 44 days in the hospital, marked by brain surgery and multiple strokes.
At trial, plaintiffs’ experts testified that a blood culture would have detected the presence of the streptococcus bacteria in less than 24 hours and a single dose of ceftriaxone administered during the third visit would have sterilized August's bloodstream within approximately two hours and prevented the bacterial meningitis that followed. The plaintiff's standard-of-care expert testified that "once you order a CBC, and it shows abnormally elevated white blood cells you cannot ignore that result."
