A Brewer woman has been awarded $8 million after a Brewer clinic failed to tell her or DHHS any signs of abuse they found on their young son.
How was the abuse determined?
Alexandria Orduna of Orono brought her 6-month-old son to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center with a swollen eye. She told medical staff that she thought the child was responding to vaccinations she received earlier in the day. After an examination, doctors told her the child had suffered a stroke and suffered a life-threatening fractured skull.
But Orduna’s lawyers told the court that she had taken her son to a state-funded clinic in Brewer with a variety of injuries before driving her to the hospital. WGME-TV reports that some of those injuries included bruised ears and swollen ankles. Each time, medical professionals treated the injuries but did not recognize or report signs of abuse, according to court documents. At EMMC, doctors gave him a full examination and found evidence of a broken back and skull, as well as old injuries that were healing. They separated the boy from possible perpetrators and called the authorities.
Was the perpetrator prosecuted?
Investigators questioned Orduna’s friend, 24-year-old Cyree Hansley, who told them the child fell into the bathtub when his chair overturned. He later changed his story and was arrested. Hansley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison, with all but four years suspended. He was also given a suspended sentence of 5 1/2 years after his release from prison.
What are the lasting physical effects of abuse?
The boy is now almost completely blind and his brain has stopped growing at the time of his beatings. Most of the settlement between Orduna and the US Department of Health and Human Services will be distributed in $17,000 monthly increments and paid into an escrow account for the rest of her son’s life. This money will help pay for the extensive medical care, services and accommodation he will need as a result of his injuries.
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