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Leukemia lawsuit drags on
Sheila Hotchkin
Express-News Staff Writer
02/27/2005 - The longer it takes to resolve a lawsuit claiming a landfill caused a child's cancer, the more it costs everyone involved. With every day that passes, the city owes another $3,000 in interest on the multimillion-dollar judgment awarded to 10-year-old Sarah Pollock and her family.
The Pollocks aren't interested in collecting any more money. After enduring their little girl's leukemia and a court battle that already has stretched two years, they just want to see the case resolved — enough to suggest mediation at one point.
"What a tragedy that this has gone on so long," lamented Sylvan Lang Jr., the family's attorney.
But city leaders feel so strongly that they aren't to blame that they appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court earlier this month. The top court has not yet decided to review it.
"We believe the landfill did not cause the cancer," First Assistant City Attorney Martha Sepeda said. "I think the city is acting as a good steward of public funds by continuing to follow the appellate process."
Even after a state appeals court reduced it last year, the award was worth $7.64 million, plus $2.3 million in prejudgment interest. It will accrue interest at an annual rate of 10 percent until the judgment is paid or reversed.
At the end of this month, the city will owe the Pollocks more than $12 million. That's still far less than the original $23 million award, which made the National Law Journal's tally of the top 100 jury verdicts in 2003.
The award was reduced first by the trial judge, and later by the 4th Court of Appeals.
The girl's parents — schoolteachers who say medical bills and the abandonment of their house ruined them financially — said they do not care about the growing interest. They just want the city to pay the award itself.
"The Pollocks have an opinion that they're going to act in the best interest of their 10-year-old child," Lang said. "And this is not an academic exercise to their 10-year-old child."
The case traces back to a house at 10811 Mount Mesabi that Charles and Tracy Pollock bought after they married in 1992. The house stood beside an inactive landfill near West Avenue and Blanco Road.
The family lived there while Tracy was pregnant and when Sarah, the second of three children, was born in June 1994.
When Sarah was 3, she fell during a dance class and complained of stomach pains. That led to doctor visits and, ultimately, the girl being diagnosed with leukemia early in 1998. She began chemotherapy within days.
Sarah's hair fell out, grew back and fell out again. She spent much of her childhood in hospitals, too sick to play even with other young patients.
At times, her parents could not touch her without washing their hands first because her immune system was so wasted by chemotherapy.
The same year Sarah fell ill, the Pollocks tried to sell their house. In the process, they came across a study that found benzene leaking from the landfill. Doctors told them the benzene may have caused their daughter's cancer.
"We were devastated," Tracy Pollock said.
Added her husband: "The children never went back to the house. They went to live with their grandmother."
City attorneys have challenged the expert testimony presented by the Pollocks at trial, calling it speculative and unsupported, and saying there is "no evidence" that the landfill caused Sarah's leukemia.
Also, they contend, the Texas Constitution protects municipalities from most liability while performing governmental functions, including operating landfills. There are few exceptions to this "sovereign immunity."
The city contends lower courts wrongly allowed the Pollock family to collect personal injury damages under an exception meant to cover only destruction of property — and that precedent would expose state and municipal governments across Texas to unlimited liability they have never before faced.
The state of Texas agrees and has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the city's case.
The family's attorney says the exception has been used to award personal injury damages for more than a century. Lang has presented legal cases from as far back as 1889 to support this assertion.
He says the appeals court already addressed every one of the city's arguments.
"The city's suggestion that there's no precedent for this court of appeals opinion is just flat wrong," he said. "I'm sorry to be so strident about it, but it's just exasperating."
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shotchkin@express-news.net
Man's spirits high despite rare disease
By Taylor Provost
Jul 19, 2007 - Linda Archambault wiped tears from her eyes as she recalled how it felt upon finding out her son had a life-threatening illness.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her nonchalantly. From the look of him, nothing at all.
Rich Archambault, 21, has aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease that affects about 1,000 Americans each year. His bone marrow does not make enough red blood cells, white blood cells and blood platelets. Without treatment, the disease is fatal, though his robust and tan appearance would suggest otherwise. Even with treatment, nothing is certain. Some people would break with such overwhelming news, but Rich is just trying to get on with his life.
“I’ve always been a positive person,” he said. “It hasn’t bothered me emotionally. I don’t ask why. I feel bad for children that have the disease.”
Rich first noticed something was wrong when his right eye became bloodshot for no apparent reason. Prescribed eye drops didn’t work. Then he began seeing bloodspots on his skin and tongue. When blood started coming through his pores he went to the emergency room at Florida Hospital in Orlando. He didn’t leave for 60 days.
Rich came in to the ER with a blood platelet count of only 2,000, compared with that of a healthy human being’s count of around 150,000. Thinking he had leukemia, one of the nurses shaved his head, as a favor, before the chemotherapy she assumed he would receive. It wasn’t leukemia, but just as serious. Doctors know little about aplastic anemia because it so rare. The cause is fairly unknown and treatment results vary.
“He could relapse tomorrow. You just don’t know,” said Linda
“A miracle could happen,” said Rich. “The only cure is bone marrow transplants.”
Ideally, transplants take place between perfect matches, from siblings or parents. Neither Rich’s brother nor his sister was a match. If either of them produced offspring, though, the child could be a donor as early as age 1. Linda said she also researched creating a sure match through in vitro fertilization.
“My daughter offered to carry it if we had to,” she said. Indeed the whole family has been affected by Rich’s illness. Rich himself is holding up remarkably well.
“I think it would be a lot worse for me if it happened to someone else,” he said. He has had to give up a job at University of Central Florida where he was about to receive a promotion, complete with health care benefits. Though he qualified for Medicaid, Rich has no health insurance and has been rejected once by Supplemental Security Income, which deemed him fit to work, against his doctor’s orders.
“If I cut myself, I would probably bleed to death,” said Rich, who sometimes must wear a mask in public to protect his extremely weak immune system from germs. On his right arm is a bandage protecting a PICC line, a catheter that is placed in the arm and threaded through to the heart, so he can receive constant treatment for the disease and where blood can be drawn when he goes back to Florida Hospital three days a week.
Now that he’s out of a job and unable to exercise, Rich would like to look at his illness as an opportunity, not a hindrance, possibly by pursuing a career in comedy or acting. After hearing that blogs he wrote on his Myspace.com Web page inspired others, he has even considered writing as a profession.
“I can’t wrestle bears or anything anymore,” he joked.
He always wanted to try white water rafting, and now he may never get the chance. Roller coasters are off limits, though Rich said he might have to break that rule. He also does karaoke at least once a week, carrying wipes along to clear away germs that threaten his life.
“He’s a great kid who didn’t ask for this disease,” said Linda. “He’s a very positive-thinking kid.”
HOW TO HELP
* An account has been established at the Bank of Inverness for donations to help with Rich Archambault’s medical expenses.
* Blood and platelet donations can also be made in his name for the platelet transfusions he receives weekly.
* Call Linda at 726-9666.
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