An autistic woman who was sent home from Kings County Hospital emergency room despite a severe spinal injury — and who is now paralyzed — won a $9 million settlement with the city.
It was the largest single malpractice payout made by the city Health and Hospitals Corp. in the last fiscal year, according to records obtained by The Post.
The suit filed by Ebony Curry’s father against the Brooklyn hospital alleged that the then-27-year-old’s paralysis was due to negligence by Kings County doctors who failed to diagnose her injury in 2011. After falling down the stairs at her home, Curry was sent to the ER but stayed there only five hours.
A radiologist later noticed the spinal injury but failed to contact Curry or her family. She had emergency surgery at a different hospital, but was still left a quadriplegic.
HHC, which runs 11 hospitals as well as clinics and nursing homes, settled a total of 221 lawsuits totaling $124 million last year. The settlements were down from the $133 million paid out a year earlier.
But new claims rose last year to 552 from 536 filed during the previous year.
Three top executives at HHC’s Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn were reassigned this month after Grisel Soto, 47, died there on Feb. 1. Soto was misdiagnosed as suffering from an overdose of synthetic marijuana when she may have had meningitis, according to her family.
The death sparked a probe of the hospital, which found that 450 employees were hired without HHC permission, a source had told The Post, although HHC maintains the leadership shakeup came “after an extensive review of the hospital’s culture it was decided that changes were necessary to improve the patient experience at the hospital.”
Last year, HHC paid $5 million to the family of a baby born with a brain injury at Coney Island Hospital in 2008. The hospital failed to diagnose a condition where fluid builds up in the fetus, the lawsuit alleges.
In The Bronx, Dorka Anderson, 51, went to Jacobi Medical Center in 2011 complaining of shortness of breath and a cough. After an “unnecessary and negligent” spinal tap she suffered a brain injury, leaving her in a vegetative state, court papers say.
Her family received a $5 million settlement.
“We have had a significant reduction of claims, settlements and payouts over the last five years,” said Ian Michaels, a HHC spokesman.
Additional reporting by Kathianne Boniello