In the News
The Legal Intelligencer
June 1, 1999
Jury Returns $1 Million Verdict for Failure To Diagnose Toddler's Dislocated Hip
A Philadelphia Common Pleas jury awarded $ 1 million to a now 4-year-old girl and her parents who claimed their pediatrician failed to diagnose her dislocated hip in a timely manner.
Andrea Giamporcaro was treated by Dr. Susan Ragonesi of South Philadelphia from the age of two weeks until she was 15 months old, when she was diagnosed with the hip injury. The girl's attorney, Nadeem Bezar of Kolsby Gordon Robin & Shore, argued that earlier diagnosis would have prevented the extensive treatment Giamporcaro underwent in the following two years. The defense, led by Frank Gerolamo of German Gallagher & Murtagh, countered by saying the girl's injury occurred shortly before it was diagnosed, and therefore Ragonesi was not at fault, according to Nezar. Gerolamo could not be reached Friday for comment. After the two-day trial in front of Judge Myrna Field, the jury found that Ragonesi was negligent and ruled that the delayed diagnosis caused the need for four surgeries performed to keep the girl's hip in its socket. Bezar said when Giamporcaro was old enough to walk shortly after her first birthday her mother noticed that the girl was struggling on one side and scheduled an appointment with Ragonesi, her regular treating physician. When the doctor did not diagnose anything wrong with the child, the girl's mother was not satisfied with the answer and took her to Shriners Hospital, where she was diagnosed with the dislocated hip almost immediately.Giamporcaro endured no less than four surgical procedures in the two following years all designed to keep the hip firmly implanted in its proper socket. Bezar sought compensation for the surgeries and pain and suffering. "When you are a growing child and your hip becomes dislocated, if it is caught and treated promptly, there is not much of a chance of a major problem occurring," Bezar said. "But if it is not caught, you'll have what we have here: the ball and the socket of the hip not growing properly. She's doing O.K. now, but the prognosis is not 100 percent certain at this point." During the trial, in which testimony began Tuesday and a verdict was rendered Thursday, Bezar called the girl's mother to describe her daughter's ordeal, along with pediatric and orthopedic experts. Bezar said the experts both argued that the diagnosis should have been picked up during the girl's first visit a month after her birth. According to Bezar, Gerolamo called Ragonesi and his own pediatric and orthopedic experts to the stand. While the defense said the injury occurred shortly before its diagnosis, Bezar said his two experts countered by showing an X-ray of the girl's hip at diagnosis to jurors a moment he believes was key in securing the verdict. "It was kind of hard because no one can say for certain [when the injury occurred] because there was no film [X-ray] of her from the first year of her life," Bezar said. "But the X-ray of the hip showed it was in such bad shape that it [the dislocation] had to have been there for a while." The jury took about three hours to deliberate before rendering its $ 1 million verdict. Bezar said delay damages could reach about $ 140,000. He said his original demand was $ 475,000 but the defendant offered no settlement.
