$4.5 million awarded in malpractice suit

Kim Smith

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 9:49 a.m.

A Clark County jury Thursday awarded a Las Vegas woman $4.5 million after finding that the negligence of an advanced nurse practitioner and a medical association led to her worsening neurological problems.

Randi DeBourg was awarded about $260,000 for lost wages and pain and suffering. The remainder of her award is based on future lost wages, medical bills and pain and suffering.

The eight-member jury reached its decision after hearing 12 witnesses over a three-week period in District Judge Gene Porter's courtroom.

Debourg's attorneys, Robert Vannah and Adam Ganz, said DeBourg filed a lawsuit against advanced nurse practitioner Carol Jones and the Southwest Medical Association in May 1999.

DeBourg went to the association complaining of a tingling and numbness in her fingers, but claimed that, because Jones and the association failed to order a magnetic resonance imaging test or call for a neurological consultation, her condition worsened.

Vannah said that DeBourg eventually began to trip and fall over her feet.

DeBourg's condition was diagnosed four months later, and she underwent spinal cord surgery in February 1999, Vannah said.

By then, however, the surgery did little to correct the problem and DeBourg, who works as a clinical social worker at the Clark County Detention Center, is in constant pain, Vannah said.

The defendants' attorneys, Kim Mandelbaum and Annette Bradley, on the first day of the trial said that their clients were negligent, Vannah said. The trial continued, however, because the parties could not agree on a settlement.