Justice for Jacob

Full Video: Surveying Case

Mrs. Pritchett 00:02
The moment you find out your child has a brain tumor, it changes everything. Jacob was one of those happy kids that loved sports. He loved school, and he was exceptionally smart. When he was placed in his older sister's math class, we knew he could do big things. The headaches first started when he was 15. His doctor ordered an MRI, but the radiology report came back normal. Jacob learned to live with the headaches. He was accepted into a high school for gifted students, and he even made the basketball team. But the headaches returned, and with a vengeance, the MRI showed that Jacob had a large brain tumor. It was malignant. They removed the tumor, but it was so large that he suffered a stroke. There were devastating neurological complications. Jacob started radiation, and we thought chemo was going to be six weeks, but it was a year. He didn't have time to recover from one round of treatment before he was hit with the next round. On top of that, he was pushing through physical therapy, and he didn't have much use of his left side.

Various Healthcare Workers 01:32
Stay tall and take steps. You're walking. You're walking on your own. You only pushing. You're looking better, dude. Hope you know that.

Mrs. Pritchett 01:37
He had to wear an eye patch because now he had double vision. He was constantly nauseous. He required 24/7 care. So his dad left his job and we moved our family into a small trailer. Jacob became our number one priority. Over time, we realized that Jacob would never be the same. It was a helpless feeling. What if something happens to us? And then came the real gut punch. Jacob's surgeon got his hands on the original MRI for when the headaches first started. The tumor was there. It was clear as day. The radiologists missed it. Over the course of about two and a half years, the tumor grew from one centimeter to four centimeters. That's the size of a golf ball. We needed to know how this could happen, but we didn't know where to begin. A trusted lawyer told us we needed to call Yarborough Applegate, so we did. Best decision we ever made. What they found was shocking. In 2015 the radiologist had reviewed all 251 images in 60 seconds. 60 seconds. They kept digging and found a direct link to the company policy that led to the devastating miss. If the tumor had been caught in 2015 it would have been a fairly simple surgery. The cancer would have been early stage, and the stroke would have never happened. Yarborough Applegate saw Jacob fighting for his life. They fought for him. They said, We're not just going to hit him in the pocketbook. We're going to change the company policy.

Jacob Pritchett 03:34
I thought if we could keep this from happening to somebody else, it would be worth it. I'll never forget the night they called, they said we're not going to have to go to trial. We've settled the case, and we got the policy change.

Mrs. Pritchett 04:00
Jacob will never have the life that he wanted, but we're in a home now where he has his own space. We can provide him the best care and explore some outside-of-the-box therapies And Yarborough Applegate gave us that. They gave us peace of mind if something happens to us, we know that Jacob will be okay. For Jacob, it was a victory that would keep others safe, and that meant the world to him. How do you thank somebody for that? Yarborough Applegate made Jacob a hero. See, we always knew he'd do big things.

Interview Clip 1: Getting Inside the System

William Applegate
When we started this process, we didn't know what we would find. We didn’t know if there was an answer to why a doctor could have missed this tumor on this MRI. We looked into the imaging center and found out that the image center was owned by another imaging center that was owned by another imaging center. And so they had set up this collection of, sort of, this web of different corporations, in an essence, to shelter the parent company. The reality is we had to file a complaint. We had to file it against every different entity that was related to this imaging center and figure out a way to get to the parent company, and to figure out how to get into those internal documents. That was a fight that was extremely challenging, just spending the time focusing on: how do we get inside this system? How do we figure out how they work, how they take and why this would take place? Really, the perseverance served well in the case, because we got into the event logs that showed that the company had in their possession, recorded data about every time an image was opened, how long it was opened for, and when it closed. And they were doing that though, in the corporate context of only determining how quickly they could get through these images and how much profit they could make. What we found out is they didn’t use it to ensure that their doctors were spending proper amount of time on it. I know that for us and for our team, we are committed to living these cases, making sure that we give every single possible resource energy money that we have to getting the best possible result for every single one of our clients.

Interview Clip 2: All the Way

William Applegate
Really the only way of getting the result we did here was pushing this thing as far as you had to go. And this is a case where we settled the case. It didn't go to trial, but we were right at the door. We walked right to the door of the courthouse and were ready to try the case. And that’s why, ultimately, the company got very serious, and this is a case where we were not even told about the insurance that existed until years into the litigation, multiple motions to compel, multiple fights. It really takes going the extra mile to make sure that you're going to find every available remedy. And it’s not about the kitchen sink or taking things too far or including people that aren't involved. It’s making sure that you find the truth. That’s our commitment, and I think that’s why we're able to make a difference in our clients’ lives, and for our co-counsel, is because we’re going all the way.

Interview Clip 3: Policy Changes

William Applegate
I think Jacob is a super special individual through his case and his willingness to go through this whole case that took years, this imaging company has changed their policies and procedures. We identified all the high risk MRIs that they provide, both to adults and to children, because we had identified other cases where there had been misses within this company. And we had them agree and commit to doing overreads, and to also provide additional criteria to make sure that their doctors were dotting every i and crossing every t. It’s a major, major outlay beyond trying to repair their past. So that’s a change that will save many, many lives in the future.

Interview Clip 4: “We’re going to do that every time”

William Applegate
We’re going to look at every case and focus on the case and get the best result for that case. But if we can also add in there an ability to make a bigger change that keeps these things from happening in the future, we’re going to do that every time.