A Navy spouse who suffered major kidney damage in 2013 after giving birth to a daughter at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, scored a big win in a lawsuit against the military.
Marites Campano, along with her husband, Raphael, were awarded $24.7 million for permanent health damage after she contracted a bacterial infection that led to sepsis, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Campano’s daughter was born July 23 at about 1 a.m.
“Two hours later, at 3 a.m., she spiked a very large fever and it was obvious at that time — and that was the start of the continuing breech of the standard of care — the malpractice — that she had an infection that should have been treated with IV antibiotics,” attorney Rick Fried told the Star Advertiser. “There’s no risk, and it was almost presumptively a serious infection that needed treatment.”
Because physicians at Tripler failed to diagnose or treat the infection with antibiotics, Campano has endured kidney disease that has necessitated dialysis and numerous transplants, the Star Advertiser reported.
She will have to take immunosuppressant medication for the rest of her life, according to the report.
The $24.7 million verdict, the result of the lawsuit filed in October 2015, is the largest ever levied against Tripler, Fried said.
In 2006, a $16.5 million verdict was leveled against against Tripler after a newborn baby, Izzy Peterson, was provided carbon dioxide instead of oxygen.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
