WILKES-BARRE - Attorney Joseph Quinn's law firm will collect nearly $5 million for its work in a lawsuit against Mercy Hospital and some of its employees.

But the attorney hopes some of that money will help in the future emergency care of children. 
Quinn's firm will donate $200,000 of its money to establish the Hourigan, Kluger & Quinn P.C. Children's Advocacy Fund to fight for that suitable care.

Quinn disclosed the plans to establish the fund in court papers filed Tuesday outlining the $11 million settlement reached last week with Mercy Hospital, some of its nurses, and doctors Marie Grabowski and Alex Huang.

The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit Quinn initiated on behalf of William and Tukishia Bobbett. The Bobbetts' 4-year-old son, Torajee, died after spending 10 hours at the Wilkes-Barre hospital in July 2001.

He was taken there after vomiting all day. But, in the 10 hours at the hospital, the staff never properly diagnosed the boy's bowel obstruction.

That led to the boy never receiving treatment for the problem. He suffered cardiac arrest and irreversible brain damage in dying.

The suit went to trial two weeks ago before Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. The jury heard three days of testimony before the settlement was reached.

The $11 million settlement comes from all the defendants in the suit, but the amount will likely increase by a few million dollars. That's because the settlement calls for the Bobbetts to receive numerous yearly payments in addition to the initial lump sum payments in the case.

Quinn's firm will receive $4.4 million of the settlement for attorneys' fees plus $387,283 for costs advanced in the case.

The firm decided to use $200,000 of that money to set up the fund to support children's rights and safety programs.

Quinn, in a press release, said details of the operation and activities of the fund are still in the formative stages and will be announced in the future.

The fund was established because Quinn's firm feels "so strongly that what happened to Torajee Terrell Bobbett should never be forgotten, and in further recognition of the fact that our children are the most vulnerable members of our society and are often exposed to unnecessary neglect and dangers with resulting serious injury and death."

The fund will be administered through the Luzerne Foundation.

"It is our hope that this fund will help assure that children, like Torajee Terrell Bobbett and so many others who we have been proud to represent, will have a brighter future," Quinn wrote.