Hospital agrees to pay $2 million to comatose car accident victim
Under a settlement agreement hashed out last month in a Santa Monica courtroom, UCLA Medical Center will pay more than $2 million to a Malibu resident who was left comatose after doctors mistakenly installed a tube into his brain four years ago.
Now 22 years old, Robert Johnson, left an all-night party in the early morning hours of July 25, 1999 high on drugs. He climbed into the back seat of a friend’s car, which later crashed on a freeway in Riverside. Lawyers say the driver and the two passengers were on drugs. The two other people in the car suffered only minor injuries.
Johnson’s parents sued UCLA for negligence after a doctor installed a tube into his brain to relieve pressure from internal bleeding four days after the accident. His parents said Johnson was coming out of his coma and was forced back into it by the tube, which led to a respiratory arrest.
But lawyers for UCLA, who admitted the tube shouldn’t have been used, said Johnson’s coma was caused by the car accident and pointed to medical reports that showed ecstasy and amphetamines in his system, saying the drugs also may have contributed to his condition.
At the time of the accident, Johnson had just graduated from Colin McEwen school in Malibu, a private college-prep school with only 45 students. He is being cared for at a full-time treatment facility in Oxnard.
The settlement agreement, which was finalized last month by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Lorna Parnell, is expected to be approved Nov. 19 by the Regents of the University of California, who run UCLA.
Though the total settlement was for $2,022,500, Johnson only received $18,333.33 of the initial cash payment, which totals almost $1 million. That’s because more than $450,000 went to lawyers and another $472,500 went towards nursing care costs.
Under the settlement agreement, Johnson will receive another $22,515.30 every three months for the next 10 years, starting March 12, 2004. The payments will go into a trust controlled by his stepfather, David Ponn, and be used mostly for ongoing medical care.
Douglas Dickson, lawyer for the Regents, said UCLA decided to settle the lawsuit because, even though they felt Johnson would have stayed comatose from the accident anyway, its doctors did make a mistake.
“It’s tragic, the young man had just graduated from high school,” Dickson said. “I think UCLA was trying very hard to help the family, to help the patient and the family. No one was happy about the circumstances of the incident and they were trying their best to do the right thing.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2003. Read the original PDF.