Justin Iriondo

My son, Justin, who is now 15, became a quadriplegic at the age of 4. Justin now requires care 24 hours a day. Through no fault of his own, Justin needs someone to feed him, dress him and take care of all his personal needs. In addition to his not being able to use his arms, or his legs, his bowels and bladder no longer function. He does not have enough strength in his diaphragm to cough. A tracheotomy tube has to be suctioned several times a day and monitored constantly for blockages.

Justin had a slow rowing tumor inside his spinal cord. After a week of mild symptoms, he was admitted to the hospital when the symptoms became more severe. The tumor was diagnosed the next day and surgery scheduled for a later date. Justin’s condition became slowly worse. Although he was not moving any part of his body, was not eating, and had not gone to the bathroom for over twenty hours, no action was taken to determine if there had been a change in the spinal tumor until Justin stopped breathing and slipped into a coma. At this point, he was put into intensive care, where it was determined the tumor had swelled, compressing his spinal cord. Justin was paralyzed from the neck down.

Justin was in intensive care for 50 days. Imagine the fear he had when he awoke from a coma, unable to move his body. Imagine my pain and helplessness when I looked into his scared eyes, unable to tell him everything would be okay.

Totally dependent on those around him, Justin must have complete trust in his care givers. He is at the mercy of anyone who comes in contact with him. Justin now watches from the sidelines at the soccer fields on which he used to play, no longer a participant.

Justin has, and will continue to face many obstacles in his lifetime. He has already undergone 7 surgeries (two of which were in excess of eight hours) He will watch as his friends get drivers’ licenses and begin to date. Although a jury decided in July of 2003 that Justin deserved economic and non economic damages to provide financial resources for his future, he will wonder, just as I do, who will take care of him when my husband and I are no longer able to do so.

Those in support of capping non economic damages argue that it is needed to save the healthcare industry. Damage caps are not going to save the health care system. This particular “reform” will benefit the insurance companies and protect offending doctors at the expense of the victims of bad medicine. It is incomprehensible to me that doctors would want to cause further injustice in addition to the pain inflicted by malpractice.

Some physicians are threatening to stop practicing in Connecticut and move to another state to avoid paying higher premiums. There is no cap to the increases that I have to pay for health insurance to protect my family.

If the goal truly is to reform the healthcare industry, we need to seek reform in all areas and not target the weakest – the victims of negligence who are left to pick up the pieces. Healthcare reform should rest on common sense and good public policy, not on special interest groups.