Articles - Brain Damage
The 9-year-old Wichitan was brain damaged in a 1989 car accident.
By Marianne Kerber
The Wichita Eagle
The dark-eyed, freckled-faced, slim 9- year-old Wichita girl may never hold a meaningful job.
She may never learn to drive a car or live independently.
But on Monday, a jury of nine women and three men handed down a verdict that allowed her adoptive parents never to worry about her financial well-being again.
The Sedgwick County District Court jury awarded $2.8 million to the girl in what her attorney called one of the largest traffic accident verdicts in Kansas history.
The jury deliberated two hours and 15 minutes before deciding the brain damage the girl suffered in a 1989 car accident with a driver from Mayflower Contract Services Inc. warranted payment for past - and future - suffering and disability. Mayflower provided drivers for the school bus that collided with the Chevrolet Nova in which the girl, 5 months old at the time, was riding.
She spent 32 days in the hospital with bleeding on her brain. The girl was discharged into the care of foster parents who later adopted her, said Bradley Prochaska, the girl's attorney.
Defense attorney Paul Hasty argued the girl suffered brain damage from beatings by her biological parents and suffered from shaken baby syndrome. Hasty claimed there was medical evidence of that.
"This was a very interesting and challenging case," said Judge D. Keith Anderson, who presided over the trial.
The jury found bus driver James Moore and the company to be 75 percent at fault in the collision. The bus driver turned left onto Kellogg in front of the Nova, which was southbound on K-42. The girl's biological mother was driving the car.
The girl was strapped in a car seat, Prochaska said. Still strapped in the carrier, she flew from the back seat, striking the driver's seat in front of her. Prochaska said her brain slammed into her skull from the force, damaging her frontal lobes.
Her frontal lobe damage has caused learning disabilities, attention problems and crying spells caused by frustration, he said. Since second grade, she's been in special education classes at Kelly Elementary School.
"She won't have a good job, won't be able to live on her own," Prochaska said of his client's mental capabilities
Hasty, Mayflower's defense attorney, declined to say whether Mayflower would appeal the verdict.
Marianne Kerber can be reached at 268-6351. Contributing Erin Kennedy of The Eagle.
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