Reporter: Anne Krueger

The family of a 4-year-old Golden Hill boy who was severely brain-damaged after receiving too much anesthesia was awarded almost $6.8 million in damages by a jury yesterday.

Payments on the award against UCSD Medical Center could total almost $24 million if the boy, Osazemen Obazee, lives 40 or more years as expected, said his attorney, Michael Reed.

Osazemen, whose parents met here after immigrating from Nigeria, was 2 years old in October 1995 when his parents took him to UCSD because he complained of pain in his hands, Reed said.

The boy, who suffers from sickle-cell anemia, needed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test to help determine the cause of the pain. The test requires the patient to remain still for 15 to 20 minutes, so Osazemen was anesthetized.

The lawsuit intended that the anesthesiologist, David Frankville, misread Osazemen’s weight as 28 kilograms instead of 28 pounds and he was given more than twice the amount of anesthesia he should have received.

Osazemen is now brain-damaged and a spastic quadriplegic, meaning that he can move his arms and legs but cannot control them, Reed said. He requires 24-hour-a-day attention.

Frankville was dropped as a defendant before the case went to trial against the medical center.

Attorney Jeff Barton, representing the medical center, said in a statement that the university was disappointed by the $6,748,996 verdict. He said the center accepted responsibility "for the extremely rare mistake that was made."

The dispute in the trial was the amount of money necessary for the boy’s care. Barton said in a statement that he offered what was considered to be a realistic care plan.

"The jury, unfortunately, chose to believe in a care plan which we seriously question will ever be implemented," Barton said.

Reed said Osazemen’s family hopes to use the money from the verdict to hire attendants to care for the boy and to purchase a house better suited for his needs.