DC: Failure to Provide $22.00 Flowmeter: Lack of Device Results in $277,000 Verdict.

CASE FACTS: On July 28, 1992, Russell Brown, who was serving a sentence as a youthful offender at the Lorton Youth Center, died of asthma. On July 27, 1983, Brown's mother, Linda Wilson, brought suit against the District of Columbia, pursuant to wrongful death and survival statutes alleging medical malpractice and other negligence. At the time of his death the patient had been incarcerated for approximately one year. There was evidence that he had suffered four attacks of asthma during the summer of 1991 and four more in 1992. On July 12, 1992, following one of these attacks, the patient was treated at D.C. General Hospital. The physicians there recommended that the patient's prior treatment with Theophylline, a bronchodilator, be continued, as well as an anti-inflammatory steroid, which had been beneficial in the past. The patient was returned to the Youth Center, but Prednisone was not administered to him. During the night of July 27-28, 1992, the patient suffered another, and more severe, asthma attack. After a delay, which was ascribed to inadequate training of personnel and negligence on the part of unlicensed foreign medical graduates assisting in the treatment, the patient was taken to the Youth Center's infirmary where he collapsed. He later died at DeWitt Army Hospital on the morning of July 28, of bronchial asthma at the age of 23. After trial, a jury ...