By:Angela Marshall
OK/GS
He wins $10.5 million in suit against doctors
Jimmy Quinn has never had a voice of his own. He can mimic a few words, but at 11 is unable to formulate sentences, to make himself understood.
However, for five weeks this year, Mary Quinn heard the unmistakable voice of her child for the first time. It wasn't Jimmy speaking but his lawyer, James Duffy.
Throughout the course of a civil-court trial, Duffy told the story of a young couple happily anticipating their first child, alleged medical negligence and a boy living with severe mental retardation.
After two days of deliberations, the jury awarded Jimmy $10.5 million on Thursday, April 5.
Mary and her husband, James, of Rockville Centre had always planned to have a big family. In 1989, they were giddy with the news that by June they would be holding their first child.
They went to what they thought was a reputable obstetrics group.
It was a difficult pregnancy, with Mary experiencing an unusual weight gain and swelling. Five months pregnant, Mary, a registered nurse, was told to take a leave of absence from work.
In the months that followed, she was given dozens of tests, including some that charted fetal movement.
Near her due date, Mary began to feel a notable decrease in the baby's movement. Jimmy had been a very active baby, she said. Finally, even when he did kick, it was nothing more than a tap.
Mary said the doctors told her not to worry and did not induce labor even after her due date, June 7, had passed.
"I begged them to induce me," Mary said during an interview last week. "They said it was unnecessary."
On June 19, Mary finally went into labor. Ten hours later, Jimmy was born. He needed oxygen.
According to Duffy and his team of experts, Jimmy had needed oxygen for days.
"We noticed a head tilt right away," James Quinn said. Again the couple was told that nothing was wrong and that most babies have trouble holding up their heads.
"You want to believe them so badly," Mary said, wiping away tears.
At five months, the Quinns brought Jimmy to a neurologist. Tests showed he had motor problems and lessened trunk control. When he was 1, an MRI showed Periventricular Leko Malcia, death of white brain matter.
Duffy and the Quinns' current doctors believe this was caused by a lack of oxygen during the last few days of Mary's pregnancy. Enough oxygen was supplied to sustain life but not enough to produce a healthy child. The lack of fetal movement should have been a dead giveaway, Duffy believes. "That is a sign the baby's in trouble," he said, after quoting information in "William's Obstetrics," a book commonly used by obstetricians. "They really just ignored that."
The suit was brought in 1993 against three Mineola doctors, Steven A. Klein, Ira J. Spector and Allen Frank. All three obstetricians cared for Mary Quinn during her pregnancy, but the jury found Klein and Spector responsible and cleared Frank, who actually delivered Jimmy, of any wrongdoing.
Peter C. Kopff of Manhattan, attorney for Spector and Frank, is baffled by the jury's decision. Kopff said Spector, who was found to be 60 percent responsible, was not involved in the decision to wait the delivery. "We think the jury's verdict is defective," he said.
He also maintains that tests taken around the due date show normal fetal movement.
Kopff has filed a motion asking state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria, who heard the case, to set the jury's verdict aside and instead find for his clients. If Bucaria does not, Kopff plans to appeal.
Neither Klein nor his attorney, Frederick P. Mose of Garden City, could be reached for comment.
SH: Life with Jimmy
The Quinns have become a traveling family over the last 11 years, trying to find treatments that will help Jimmy. They have visited specialists all over the country.
He can't write his name, tie his shoes or take care of himself. He needs constant care. Most of that care is provided by Mary, whose job at St. Francis allows her the flexibility to be there when Jimmy needs her.
For years, the Quinns have worried about what will happen to their first-born when they die. They feared that his sisters, Erin, 7, and 2-year-old Meghan, would have to bear the responsibility.
This verdict buys them hope. "It will never replace what we lost," Mary said, wiping tears from her eyes. "We just know that when we're gone, Jimmy will be taken care of for the rest of his life."
They also hope that it will allow them to continue to seek out professional help that one day might allow Jimmy to have a voice of his own. "If I didn't have hope, I couldn't get out of bed in the morning," Mary said.
Weekdays, Jimmy boards the bus for the long ride to the Developmental Disability Institute in Smithtown where he goes to school. In the evenings, he plays with his sisters. They have an especially close bond, according to the Quinns.
One of the hardest things for the couple is the knowledge that Jimmy knows he is different and the frustration they can see him battle every day.
When his sisters come home from school and talk about their day, Jimmy cries. Sometimes at night, he lays in bed and cries. It breaks their hearts.
"It's hard to watch your other children pass him," added James, who works in the municipal bond department for Smith Barney.
To the Quinns, Jimmy has always been a forgotten child, one who fell through the cracks in the system. They are thankful to Duffy for putting an end to that. "Mr. Duffy is an amazing man," Mary said. "For once, my son really had a voice because Mr. Duffy was his voice in that courtroom."
A private family, the Quinns declined to be photographed for this article.
