A Harris County jury has determined a former Houston dentist should pay 95.5 million dollars to the family of ten-year-old Naveah Hall who was left with brain damage.
Hall was four years old when Bethanial Jefferson treated her for a broken tooth. Family attorney Jim Moriarity says Jefferson restrained the girl in what's called a "papoose." He says it is closer to a straight jacket.
"Then the dentist overdoses the kid on a variety of drugs including 70% nitrous oxide. The child has seizures." He says Jefferson, who already had several run-ins with the state dental board called a pharmacist friend who recommended she give the girl Halcion, a powerful sedative. He says that's exactly the opposite of what Naveah needed. "So now you have a child who is not breathing, who is in severe respiratory distress and they give her a depressant." He says she went into convulsions and the staff called 911 four and a half hours after the visit began.
Moriarity says the jury didn't award anyone anything. They assessed damages at $95.5 million dollars. They decided not to go after the pharmacist.
"It's not an award. Nobody will get a dime out of this judgment. What will happen is the pharmacist goes free, Bethanial Jefferson is facing criminal charges and in my view will almost certainly go to jail. There is an extraordinary effect. Every Medicaid dental cheat in this country, of which there are many, will get a message that if you harm our children, if you overdose our children, if you kill them, we will hold you accountable."
He says the dentist was going to charge $3,000 for the treatment. "Everybody thinks these (Medicaid) dentists are suffering because they can't make any money treating our poor children. They make more money treating our poor children than they do treating our rich children. They bilk the government for billions and billions of dollars."
He says there's no money because Jefferson is out of business. She had an insurance policy worth a little over a million dollars, which Hall's family collected years ago.
Naveah is blind. She cannot walk, speak or feed herself and requires around-the-clock care. Naveah's mother and her mother are the caretakers. Moriarity says there is never enough money to care for such kids. He visits the family frequently.
"Every single time I've seen this little girl, her hair has been done beautifully. She'll have little curls and little knots in it. And it will be done beautifully. They take care of this little girl the same way any of us would be so proud of if we took care of our own little girls like that. The unfortunate reality is that this little girl is not there anymore....she's profoundly helpless, but she's loved and cared about."
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