During the birth of Sandra’s daughter Alexandra, the doctor contorted and stretched Alexandra’s spine, destroying her nerves and leaving her partially paralyzed. The doctor applied so much force that, in addition to the spinal injury (which would prove fatal), the baby’s elbow was broken and pulled from its socket. Some of the damaged spinal nerves were responsible for stimulating the growth of her rib cage. But because the nerves were damaged, her ribs did not expand, and when the rest of her body grew over the next several months she suffocated inside her small rib cage. Alexandra died on Valentine’s Day, 1994, at age eight-months. The Katadas settled the case against the doctor for the insurance company’s policy limit, one million dollars.
A Dallas Morning News investigation found that two other babies in this doctor’s care had died in the three years before the Katadas’ and another died after their baby died. In one of those cases, by the time the parents found out that this doctor had caused their baby’s injuries, it was too late to go to court because the two-year statute of limitations had run. All the families complained to the Texas Medical Board about this doctor but he his still practicing.
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