Jacob Sweet
Jacob Sweet is a boy who was born at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska on Thursday, 16 January 1986. The following day, on Friday, 17 January 1986, James Nesbitt, M.D. of The Children's Clinic, without medical indication, provided the healthy infant with a non-therapeutic circumcision. The infant was then discharged home.[1]
Then on Saturday, January 25. Jacob was vomiting, fussy, and the circumcision site was red and swollen, so the Sweets returned to the hospital where they were met by Dr. Daniel Tulip, also of the Children's Clinic. Dr. Tulip admitted Jacob to the hospital.[1]
The next morning (Sunday, January 26), the child had three stiffening spells, while his mother held him. The spells involved arching his back, rolling his eyes and turning red in the face. In the afternoon, he began to experience the spells every 45 minutes. At 9 p.m., the pediatrician put the child on an apnea monitor. The monitor sounded several times during the evening. Rather than respond to the alarm, the on-duty nurse turned down its volume to avoid disturbing the other patients. Finally, at 1 a.m., the child suffered a seizure while the pediatrician was present.[1]
Jacob was severely brain damaged. He was blind and could not walk, talk, or care for himself in any respect.[1]
Contents
Legal proceedings
The Sweets retained Alan Sherry and filed a suit for malpractice against the physicians and the hospital. The Sweets lost and, moreover, the physicians and hospital were awarded compensation of $150,000 for the physicians' legal expenses and $150,000 for the hospital's legal expenses by the trial court,[1] which were upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court.[2]
The Sweets then discovered that Sherry had misrepresented himself as an expert in malpractice proceedings. They then retained Mark Johnson of the Seattle legal and medical malpractice law firm of Johnson Flora to sue Alan Sherry. The Sherry law firm agreed to settle out of court for an undisclosed amount of damages.[3]
Death
Jacob Sweet died at an early age.
External links
References
- ↑ a b c d e
Hammond, Tim (22 February 2008). Jacob Sweet
. Retrieved 19 June 2020. - ↑ Sweet v. Sisters of Providence in Washington, 893 p.2d 1252 (Ala. Sup. Ct., April 14, 1995)
- ↑
(8 March 2000)."Betrayed by Doctors and Lawyers in Alaska, Sweets Find Justice Through Seattle Malpractice Attorney", www.cirp.org, Johnson Flora. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
Quote:To me the Sweets are heroic figures, Johnson said. ``In order to right a terrible wrong — the catastrophic injury to their son — they confronted two of society's most powerful institutions: the medical system and the legal system. They fought for 13 years until they prevailed.
