Montgomery County jury awards $15 million to foster child's estate in wrongful death suit
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct details the plaintiff's attorneys say were erroneous in court documents.
A Montgomery County jury has awarded $15 million to the estate of a 9-year-old boy that plaintiffs say died in 2013 from his foster parent and social worker’s reckless mismanagement of his medical needs.
The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before returning the unanimous verdict on Aug. 5, a statement from Alexander Shunnarah’s law office says.
“This is a landmark case in which the jury clearly sent the message that we have the right to expect more from an agency with as much power as DHR in terms of taking its own rules more seriously to ensure that clear medical instructions are followed, and children do not die needlessly,” said Brett Turnbull, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
'A brighter path forward' against child: 'Embrace Alabama's Kids' mural unveiled in Montgomery
Alabama: Fewer foster children, record high adoptions among Alabama's child welfare successes
According to the complaint filed in Montgomery County, Adarion Curry was placed into the custody of the Alabama Department of Human Resources in 2013, when he was 8 years old. His DHR case worker, Kristi Kelley, and foster care provider Becky Van Gilder were defendants in the case.
The child suffered from sickle cell anemia, but his condition was managed by medication and close monitoring, and limitation of physical activity.
The day he was placed in DHR custody, Curry's prescription medications and medical information were provided to Kelley and/or Van Gilder, according to the complaint. The defendants did not provide the level of care needed for his disease, the plaintiffs argued.
Turnbull said Curry should have been deemed "medically fragile" based on DHR's guidelines, but that never happened.
A few days before Curry's death in late May, Van Gilder dropped him off with a "substitute foster mom," Turnbull said, where his medical needs were not adequately attended to and he started to feel sick.
A few days later, when Van Gilder picked up Curry from the substitute foster parent, he was having difficulty breathing. Van Gilder took him to Baptist South Medical Center in Montgomery, where he was diagnosed with acute chest syndrome, a complication of sickle cell anemia.
A day later, Curry was transferred to Children’s Hospital for further treatment of his progressively worsening symptoms from acute chest syndrome. He died at 7:22 p.m. on May 30.
Arnold Curry, the administrator of the child's estate, filed the wrongful death suit in 2015. Will O’Rear is listed as the plaintiff and administrator of the child’s estate in later court filings.
The case was brought to trial by attorneys Andrew Moak (Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys), Turnbull, and Robert LeMoine (Turnbull, Holcomb & LeMoine, P.C).
“We worked for seven years to bring this case to trial,” Moak said. “When DHR chooses to take a child into its custody, whatever its reason may be, the child does not have a choice in the matter. This child died because adults who took responsibility for his life disregarded their rules and their training and unnecessarily allowed him to slip into a medical crisis that he did not survive. They knew this little boy had a dangerous disease and knew what could happen to him if they ignored its symptoms, but they refused medical care until it was too late.”
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.
Your subscription makes our journalism possible. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery Co. jury awards $15M to deceased child's estate
