Exclusive: Jury Orders Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia To Pay $10M
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A little boy whose life was full of promise is now facing a lifetime of hardships. A jury has decided that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia will have to pay $10 million for their mistakes that caused his injuries.
Three days in a row, a mom from West Philadelphia brought her baby to CHOP with a fever that wouldn't go away. He had an infection that wasn't properly diagnosed. Now years later, that family says there's finally justice.
Six-year-old Shamir Tillery loves to show pictures of himself, and without words, he says a lot.
Shamir is deaf and has significant learning disabilities because of a brain injury that happened when he was a baby. His mom, Shantice Tillery, lives with shattered dreams and tears that never stop.
"I don't know if he's going to be able to do everything that he could have done," said Shantice. "I'm mad that it happened."
Shantice says when Shamir was 11 months old, he spiked a high fever. She took him to Children's Hospital, where they were sent home twice. On the third visit, three days in a row back to the hospital, Shamir was finally diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
"It's unfortunate that Shamir didn't get basic standard medical care. It's very, very unfortunate," said attorney Andrew Stern, who represented the family in a lawsuit against CHOP. He says by the time Shamir got blood work and other basic testing, it was too late.
"It is inexcusable negligence," Stern said, "and what's really sad is that it would have been so easy for this to have been corrected for him, to get the right treatment, when all he needed was antibiotics."
A jury awarded the family $10 million. Shamir will need lifelong care.
"I would want him to do everything that any other child can do," Shantice said.
Shamir wears hearing aids, but they don't help much. He communicates mainly with signing. But you don't need words to know he is an adorable little boy.
CBS3 Eyewitness News reached out to Children's Hospital for a reaction. A spokesperson said the hospital doesn't comment on litigation.