Jury Awards $1 Million for Medical Malpractice

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

A Richmond Circuit Court jury has awarded $1 million to a 2 -year old girl who suffered a withered leg when pediatric cardiologists failed to detect and treat a blood clot in her leg.

The defendants – physicians Monica Goble, William Moskowitz and Louise W. Robertson – acknowledged that they had been negligent in the treatment of Keara Chambers. They also acknowledged the reasonableness of the $110,000 in medical bills that have been incurred in treating the girl. Jay Tronfeld, who represented the girl along with attorneys Elizabeth E. Smith and Leonard W. Lambert, said Keara was born at St. Mary’s Hospital and transferred to a Medical College of Virginia hospital for treatment of a suspected heart ailment.

The treatment included examining the heart with a catheter, a procedure that has the creation of blood clots as a possible side effect, Tronfeld said. A blood clot blocked a blood vessel in her leg, which the physicians did not detect for three days, Tronfeld said. By the time, some tissue in the leg had been destroyed, and Teara was left with her right leg shorter than the other one, Tronfeld said.

An expert testified that the leg could be as much as 3 inches shorter than her left one. Other experts testified that Keara could undergo a leg-lengthening procedure that would involve breaking the leg. Tronfeld asked the jury to award her $3 million. The jury deliberated about 90 minutes before awarding her $1 million Friday, the limit state law places on recovery for medical malpractice.

Awarded: $1 Million