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NANCY GRACE

Toddler Loses Hand, Both Feet in 5-Hour ER Wait

Aired February 16, 2011 - 20:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Sacramento. Mommy and Daddy rush their 2-year-old baby Malyia to the ER, 101 degree fever, bruising on the face, barely able to walk. ER nurses say it`s a virus and tell Mommy and Daddy to just wait. Two hours pass, fever spikes to 103, bruising spreads, the baby`s face now black and blue. The baby cannot stand up. The parents beg. The nurses say wait.

Bombshell tonight. While the nurses say "wait," a flesh-eating bacteria spreads through baby Malyia`s body, growing stronger literally by the minute, then liver failure. Finally, baby Malyia`s feet, her left hand, all the fingers on the right hand gone, amputated. Those five hours waiting cost this baby her hands and feet and nearly her life. Tonight, we want justice!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two-year-old Malyia Jeffers has no feet and only parts of her hands. They were amputated, the result of a severe bacterial infection. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room at Sacramento`s Methodist Hospital in Sacramento, but were forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor. The family is now suing for medical malpractice.

RYAN JEFFERS, FATHER: All I can think about is just how angry I am towards the ER.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They delayed treatment to this poor little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The papers say, quote, "While in the waiting room, Malyia grew sicker and weaker."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hospital says the California Department of Public Health is now looking into Malyia`s care there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, live, Malibu. A California beauty queen has dinner at an upscale Malibu restaurant, then disappears. Weeks pass, no sign of 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson. But then multiple sightings take her, the beauty queen, to Vegas. Tonight, have remains of the 24-year-old beauty queen been discovered?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Mitrice Richardson!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her family hasn`t seen or heard from her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want our daughter found.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former beauty pageant contestant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for Mitrice Richardson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have discovered a human skull. We`ve discovered some bones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were more remains to be found.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m a little (INAUDIBLE) right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To my sadness and disappointment, I`m reporting to you.

GRACE: Guys, this is not good. This is bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) report.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the confirmed remains of Mitrice Richardson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) with her head chopped off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Skeletal remains were found in a remote Malibu canyon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The main bone that I needed to be found, they did not recover. I am hoping that going forward, there`s going to be testing and analysis that will take place that will help move us closer to finding out who a suspect could potentially be in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Mommy and Daddy rush their 2-year-old baby Malyia to the ER, 101-degree fever, bruising on the face, barely able to walk. ER nurses say it`s a virus. They tell Mommy and Daddy to just wait.

While nurses say wait, a flesh-eating bacteria spreads through the baby`s body, growing stronger and stronger literally by the minute. And then liver failure. Finally, baby Malyia`s feet, her left hand, all the fingers on her right hand gone, amputated. Those five hours waiting cost this baby her hands and feet and nearly her life. And tonight, I want justice!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s already gone through the major surgery, the amputation of her hand and both her feet. Ryan first brought his daughter to Methodist Hospital of Sacramento. Ryan says his daughter`s temperature was going up and her face was bruising badly. But he says they still had to wait about five hours to be seen. He wonders if that time cost his daughter her limbs.

JEFFERS: This whole thing with the ER has just been -- I want to -- I want to -- I want to get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The key to what went wrong is not correctly identifying how serious the child -- how sick the child was when the child came in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family`s seeking payment for medical expenses past, present and future.

JEFFERS: I am sure that they`re sorry the way this turned out, and I hope -- one of the goals of this lawsuit is that hospitals and emergency rooms will take better care in the future of our children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hospital says the California Department of Public Health is now looking into Malyia`s care there. That agency can only say there`s an investigation going on at Methodist Hospital, not what they`re looking into. Methodist can`t say much, either. As for Ryan, he says preventing this from happening again will be his mission. And with the Department of Public Health investigating, he says it`s a step in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. I want to go straight out to Nikki Medoro with 1530 KFBK. What happened?

NIKKI MEDORO, NEWSTALK 1530 KFBK (via telephone): Well, it`s November 28th. So you can just imagine it`s a young couple, Ryan Jeffers and Leah Vain (ph). They have three children, and their youngest, 2-year-old Malyia, comes down with a fever. They do like all parents do, they keep a close eye on her. And then the next day, November 29th, they notice that she`s very lethargic, she`s weak, her fever has spiked and she has these bruises on her face. So they rush her to the emergency room.

And once in the emergency room, they`re told to wait. The nurses are saying the rash is connected somehow to her fever. And they wait and they wait and they see other people being taken ahead of them. Finally, after five hours, Ryan Jeffers has had enough. He barrels past the nurses` station, goes directly into the emergency room, shows his daughter, whose body is becoming more and more lifeless, to the nurse, and says, Does this look like a rash to you? And she says, no, immediately takes blood tests. The daughter is in liver failure.

They sent to another nearby hospital. They say, We can`t handle this. They fly little Malyia all the way to Stanford, Lucille Packer (ph) Children`s Hospital, two hours away, where she is diagnosed with strep A. Her organs are failing. It`s invaded her organs. Two weeks later, her limbs are amputated.

GRACE: To Alexis Weed, on the story. Explain to me what exactly this infection is.

ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, it`s a bacterial infection. She ended up going into septic shock. There was clotting to her limbs. That`s what eventually causes this amputation of these various limbs several weeks after she presents at the children`s hospital.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Cynthia, North Carolina. Hi, Cynthia. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Miss Nancy. I`ve been waiting for years to talk to you.

GRACE: Thank you for calling in, dear. What is your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can anybody be held criminally responsible for this little girl? I mean, I`m a mother, too...

GRACE: I think that there is a very strong chance, Cynthia. I got to -- did you say you`re a mother? I think I lost Cynthia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m here.

GRACE: Cynthia, are you a mother? Is that what you just said?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m a mother of six.

GRACE: And what do you think? Do you think there should be criminal charges?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, if it was me, I would be at the prosecutor`s office every day.

GRACE: I want to go out to Jean Casarez, legal correspondent, "In Session." What about it, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Let`s look at the facts, all right? They go to the hospital. They`re in the waiting room. According to the civil complaint, the family is begging to go in and see a doctor. The triage nurse keeps looking at her, as her skin continues to become discolored hour after hour after hour. Isn`t that a criminal responsibility there, knew or should have known that something very serious was going to happen?

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Susan Loggans, medical malpractice attorney, represented Dennis Quaid`s young twins, John Burris, renowned defense attorney, San Francisco, Randy Kessler, defense attorney, Atlanta.

Susan, what do you make of it?

SUSAN LOGGANS, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ATTORNEY: I`d love to have the case. I feel really sorry for the little girl, obviously. I mean, not only did this cost the girl her limbs, but now she`s going to be limited in recovery for those loss of limbs to $250,000. That`s it. That`s all she can get outside of her economic loss in the state of Illinois -- in the state of California under California law. And that`s a travesty.

GRACE: Right now, a special guest joining us out of San Francisco, Moseley Collins, joining us exclusively. He is the attorney for the Jeffers family. Moseley, thank you for being with us.

MOSELEY COLLINS, ATTORNEY FOR JEFFERS FAMILY: You`re welcome. Glad to be here.

GRACE: Moseley, I just can`t take it in that these nurses tell the baby to wait. She can`t even stand up. Her fever is spiking, as she`s turning blue. I don`t understand. How could they tell her to wait?

COLLINS: I don`t know. You know, the family -- when you go to an emergency room, you`re kind of in their hands. You`re kind of relying on them. And the family...

GRACE: I`ve been there!

COLLINS: ... is begging...

GRACE: I`ve been there!

COLLINS: Yes. The family`s begging, you know, We -- our baby -- you`ve got to see her. And she gets sicker and sicker and sicker. And finally, to the husband`s credit, he bursts through and says, I won`t wait in this waiting room anymore. He burst through and demanded a doctor see her. And finally, a doctor did see her.

GRACE: Back to Nikki Medoro, Newstalk 1530 KFBK. What is the hospital saying?

MEDORO: The hospital isn`t saying anything. They`re saying, obviously, privacy concerns, and since this is a civil suit, they are not commenting. But you can just imagine that none of these nurses -- I don`t think that any nurse goes into a situation hoping for this kind of outcome. But you have to wonder, what were they thinking, seeing a child become more and more lethargic, get bruises all over her body? And so that`s where their suit is coming from.

GRACE: She waited a full five hours in the waiting room. What hospital is it, Nikki?

MEDORO: This is Methodist Hospital. It`s in south Sacramento of (ph) the city.

GRACE: And what is its reputation?

MEDORO: You know, we don`t -- it`s not a hospital that makes headlines. It`s not -- it`s something that we would process (ph) this hospital as being a problem hospital. It is with Catholic Health Care West. And some of these ER workers are also being named in the suit. But it`s not a hospital that has a reputation for being bad. But I know that this suit aims to change some of the protocols of how they treat these very sick children.

GRACE: For those of you just joining us, take a look at this little baby. While the ER nurses tell her parents to just wait, and I quote, a flesh-eating bacteria spreads across her body in five hours. She`s in liver failure. The baby loses her feet, one hand, her fingers, nearly her life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFERS: Every time she comes back from surgery, she been getting stronger and just making huge, huge steps forward on her health. Now that she has been recovering and stuff like that, all I can think about is just how angry I am towards the ER.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two-year-old Malyia Jeffers has no feet and only parts of her hands. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room at Sacramento`s Methodist Hospital, but were forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor. The family is now suing for medical malpractice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospitals are never allowed to unnecessarily endanger their patients. And what happened here is they delayed treatment to this poor little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody from the hospital would talk on camera, but they did provide us with this written statement. It reads, "At Methodist Hospital, patient care and safety is our priority. We were sorry to hear about the eventual outcome for Malyia, and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."

JEFFERS: This whole thing with the ER has just been -- I want to -- I want to -- I want to get to it, but it`s just a matter of I don`t know when, what time. And after all, you know, now that she`s getting better, maybe it`s now a better time to focus on that, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The papers filed say, quote, "While in the waiting room, she grew sicker and weaker." The family is seeking payment for Malyia`s medical expenses past, present and future.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody from the hospital would talk on camera, but they did provide us with this written statement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It reads, "At Methodist Hospital, patient care and safety is our priority. We were sorry to hear about the eventual outcome for Malyia, and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. We are unable to comment on matters of pending litigation."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We`re sorry. We`re sorry? For those of you just joining us, Mommy and Daddy race their little baby to the ER. They are told to wait. After two hours, bruises are spontaneously spreading across her face. Her fever spikes to 103. The nurses still make them wait. Finally, the baby can no longer stand. The dad barrels past the nurses into the ER and begs people to look at his baby. The baby loses both feet, one hand, the fingers off the other hand. She`s in liver failure. Her organs are starting to fail because the nurses kept her waiting five long hours.

To Carolyn in Florida. Hi, Carolyn. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I just want to know, what can we do about these hospitals? My 2-year-old nephew, the same thing happened to him in a Tarpon (ph) Springs, Florida, hospital. And he ended up dying.

GRACE: Oh, my.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two years old.

GRACE: What exactly happened? What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My brother took him into the hospital with a fever. They sent the baby home. My brother took him back to the hospital. The second time, they made him wait about five hours in the emergency room. Then they said they couldn`t take care of him and they took him to another hospital. And two days later, the baby was dead.

GRACE: Was it this type of a staph infection?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was a staph infection, and they told them there was nothing they could do in the beginning.

GRACE: OK, I don`t mean to put you on the hot seat, Dr. Howard Oliver, but you are a doctor. You are familiar with emergency rooms. Weigh in.

DR. HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, you know, this is a child that can`t communicate. The original temperature that he presented with was -- or she presented with was 101 degrees, which indicates that she had an infection. At that point, they certainly should have triaged her further and had a doctor see her. Certainly, when the baby`s temperature elevated to 103 degrees, it indicated that it was worse than just a viral infection, that it was a bacterial infection. And the fact that it had discoloration of the skin should have alerted them even more that this baby needed immediate treatment.

GRACE: Dr. Howard Oliver, didn`t you have to do a rotation in an emergency room at some point?

OLIVER: I was the director of an emergency room at one time.

GRACE: How -- do the nurses -- do the people just get so overworked and callous, they just don`t give a damn about what`s going on? I mean, if I see a baby and it`s turning blue in the face, I would try to do something to save it!

OLIVER: Yes. Definitely. You`re usually overly cautious with a baby because it can`t communicate, and you err on the side of caution because you don`t want to lose that baby. And you would think that these nurses would have felt that way also.

GRACE: Well, obviously, they didn`t. In the end, the baby nearly dies, has had both feet, one hand, the rest of her fingers amputated, liver failure while nurses sat by, letting people go ahead of the family with the sick baby. And now this child faces the rest of her life as an amputee!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFERS: Every time she comes back from surgery, she`s been getting stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s already gone through the major surgery, the amputation of her hand and both her feet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her parents rushed her to the emergency room at Sacramento`s Methodist Hospital, but were forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospitals are never allowed to unnecessarily endanger their patients. And what happened here is they delayed treatment to this poor little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family is now suing for medical malpractice.

JEFFERS: Every time she comes back from surgery, she`s been getting stronger, and then just making huge, huge steps forward on her health. Now that she has been recovering and stuff like that, all I can think about is just how angry I am towards the ER.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Malyia Jeffers is still recovering at Stanford`s Lucille Packer Children`s Hospital, but she`s doing better. She`s already gone through the major surgery, the amputation of her hand and both her feet. Ryan first brought his daughter to Methodist Hospital of Sacramento. Ryan says his daughter`s temperature was going up and her face was bruising badly. But he says they still had to wait about five hours to be seen. He wonders if that time cost his daughter her limbs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. I only wonder what would have happened if Malyia`s father had not barreled through the emergency room doors and begged, demanded somebody look at his baby. What would have happened, Dr. Oliver, if, say, another two hours passed?

OLIVER: Well, you have to think that a toddler like this has a limited immune system to fight such an infection. A couple more hours would have probably killed the child.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Melody in Arkansas. Hi, Melody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?

GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just have a couple things to say, just a couple statements. The first thing, that Dr. Oliver, bless his heart, he - - I`m sure he`s very credible, but he just contradicted himself. He just said that baby came in with a viral infection, and then all of a sudden, it turned into a bacterial infection. I mean, Nancy, I`ve been a critical care nurse and an ED (ph) nurse for 17 years, and I have taken care of many, many patients with necrotizing fasciitis. I have used a Sharpie marker on them and either every 30 minutes or every hour marked the redness, the infection on their skin...

GRACE: Well, let me ask you, Melody...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... as it`s progressing.

GRACE: Melody in Arkansas, what did the nurses do wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What -- no, I`m going to tell you, this is what happens. In the emergency department, there`s a protocol, and the protocol is set by the emergency department director and it`s set by the administrative department. So once you triage a patient, it`s not up to the nurses anymore. It`s up to the physicians who takes the next patient. So I mean, you can come back and you can keep asking for a patient to be seen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two-year-old Malyia Jeffers has no feet and only parts of her hands. They were amputated, the result of a severe bacterial infection. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room at Sacramento Methodist Hospital but were forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor. The family is now suing for medical malpractice.

RYAN JEFFERS, MALYIA JEFFERS` FATHER: All I can think about is just how angry I am towards the ER.

MOSELEY COLLINS, ATTORNEY FOR 2-YEAR-OLD GIRL MALYIA JEFFERS, SUING HOSPITAL FOR MALPRACTICE: They delayed treatment to this poor little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The papers say, quote, "While in the waiting room, Malyia grew sicker and weaker."

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The hospital says the California Department of Public Health is now looking into Malyia`s care there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Forced to wait five hours before ever seeing a doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She`s already gone through the major surgery, the amputation of her hand and both her feet.

Ryan first brought his daughter to Methodist Hospital of Sacramento. Ryan says his daughter`s temperature was going up and her face was bruising badly but he says they still had to wait about five hours to be seen. He wonders if that time cost his daughter her limbs.

JEFFERS: This whole thing with the ER has been -- I want to -- I want to get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The key to what went wrong is not correctly identifying how serious the child -- how sick the child was when the child came in.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The family is seeking payment for Malyia`s medical expenses past, present and future.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: For those of you just joining us, take a look at this 2-year-old little toddler. Her parents raced her to the ER. She`s got a fever of 101 with what they believe was a rash spreading across her body. The nurses tell her to wait. After two hours, her fever spikes to 103. She can no longer even stand.

Then her face spontaneously turning black and blue. When she`s finally taken into ER, she`s in liver failure. And those five hours, a flesh-eating bacteria spreads across a child`s body. Her left hand gone, both feet gone. Fingers on her other hand, gone.

In those five hours, she loses feet, hand, fingers, nearly her life. And tonight, we want answers.

Out to the Jeffers` family attorney, Moseley Collins. What`s the hospital saying?

COLLINS: They`re just telling us that they`re not going to comment and they`re sorry for what happened is all.

GRACE: They`re sorry?

COLLINS: No real answer.

GRACE: Can you tell me, what were the nurses saying when the father would keep going up to those horrible little windows with the plastic partitions so you don`t breathe on anybody? What were the nurses saying, sit back down?

COLLINS: Yes, you wait, we`ll get to you, take it easy. It won`t be long. You wait. It will be a little longer. OK, it won`t be long, you`re next.

GRACE: You`re next. You`re next.

COLLINS: And nothing.

GRACE: And they were never next.

COLLINS: They were never next.

GRACE: In fact, the mommy and daddy watched people go ahead of them. Why? Why did they go ahead of the little girl?

COLLINS: You know, that`s a great question. The nurses making decisions, OK, we`re going to let these people go and the little girl wait. That`s what the decisions they were making that afternoon.

GRACE: But why her?

COLLINS: No, they just didn`t --

GRACE: I guarantee there were people that were ambulatory, that were walking, that could walk back to the ER. All of those people could not have been sicker than her. She`s going into liver failure.

COLLINS: It was a mistake.

GRACE: A mistake? Sir, you know, no disrespect, Moseley Collins, because you have an excellent reputation.

COLLINS: Thank you.

GRACE: But when you take one person, that`s a mix-up before the baby. But then two, then three, then five, then eight, for five hours? How can all of that be a mistake? That was a deliberate decision on their part to keep this girl out there and not be checking on her. Were they checking on her?

COLLINS: The father would go up to the nurses every so often and say look, look at this, and they would say OK, we see it, now you go wait.

So it was -- they deliberately -- you`re right, they deliberately chose to keep putting her off and to take other people ahead of her. Even people who came after her went in ahead of her. And those are deliberate choices made by the nursing staff there.

GRACE: I just don`t see that as a mistake. I`m just thinking of my own children when -- I know you`re supposed to wait until it`s like 103 or something like that. But when their fever gets up around 100, I have to take them to the doctor, I mean, right then, because it can spike like that.

And these infections can turn on a hairpin. I mean it`s just so dangerous.

Back to the lawyers. In addition to Moseley Collins out of San Francisco, Susan Logan, medical malpractice attorney, L.A., John Burris, defense attorney, San Francisco, Randy Kessler, attorney, Atlanta.

What about it, Burris?

JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I agree with everyone else. This is an outrageous act and certainly from the plaintiff`s point of view, they have an extraordinary good case. The defense in this case probably will not be anything that -- other than trying to work out the best financial arrangements they can and maybe some real reforms will come about. But this is an indefensible case.

GRACE: Wait a minute.

BURRIS: It`s a medical malpractice.

GRACE: Aren`t you a defense attorney?

BURRIS: I`m not a -- I`m not a malpractice --

GRACE: You`re supposed to be, give me your best shot for the hospital.

BURRIS: But I`m not a medical malpractice defense lawyer.

GRACE: You know you choose to be a defense attorney when you feel like it.

BURRIS: I`m not a medical malpractice defense lawyer. But I will say this. Of course, a medical malpractice is a question of the standard of care of a particular hospital.

GRACE: I can hardly even --

BURRIS: What are the standard of care that you have there?

GRACE: Burris, Burris, Burris, Burris. Look at the baby.

Liz, put the baby back up.

Look at this baby, Burris. She doesn`t have her hands.

BURRIS: I see.

GRACE: She doesn`t have her feet anymore. Because of these nurses.

BURRIS: Well, I`m very sympathetic to this issue. Of course. I mean, obviously, I`m a parent as well. You take a child to the -- emergency room, you expect them to get treated in a timely way.

That`s one side. The other side of the defense on this case, they`re going to have to figure out how they want to proceed on this case. And from my point of view, they`re not going to try to say that it was OK. They`re going to figure out what kind of damages they`re going to have to pay and try to minimize those damages. That`s the best defense they have.

GRACE: What about it, Kessler?

RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, their best defense is going to be causation. Did their delay actually cause these issues or were the issues have happened even if they`d seen the baby right away. But no matter what, there`s going to be a settlement because what these parents want is for this --

GRACE: Kessler -- put him up. Put him up. Put him up. Didn`t you hear that her face turned black and blue as she sat out there and waited? You can`t tell me that spontaneous black and blue spreading across your face within those five hours doesn`t mean your conditioning is worsening. It does.

KESSLER: That`s true. But Nancy, you can`t tell me that the -- that the child would not have suffered these consequences even if she`d been seen right away. But the hospital is going to have to settle --

GRACE: I think I can.

KESSLER: OK.

GRACE: I`m just a JD, Kessler, I`m not an MD. But I`ve got enough sense to know that at 101 degrees you`re not going into liver failure. At 103 and you`re starting to spontaneously bruise, you`re going into liver failure. Even I know that.

KESSLER: That`s true, but the lawsuit is not going to bring back this child`s limbs. What`s going to happen is the lawsuit is going to help the hospital have a better policy.

GRACE: I can`t believe you just said that.

KESSLER: It`s not going to --

GRACE: Did you just say the lawsuit is not going to bring back the child`s limbs? Then why even file a lawsuit, Kessler? That`s not even the point.

KESSLER: To save future children, Nancy, so that they can reach a settlement and change protocol so that in the future other children don`t suffer this trauma. And that has to be done by settlement. The jury can`t do that. The jury can`t say to the hospital, change this, change that. The jury can award money, a settlement can make the hospital do things that will help future children which it sounds like is what these parents are seeking.

GRACE: To Dr. Howard Oliver, you`ve already heard one nurse out of Arkansas call in and say, it`s really the doctor`s fault. OK.

To me, and just imagine me sitting on the jury. The mom and dad are talking to the nurses. You don`t get to talk to the doctor? I`ve been in the ER plenty of times. You don`t get to see any doctors. It`s the nurse that comes out there and talk to you.

Now the nurses are trying to blame the doctors. What`s the real story about the ER? Who`s making the decision?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well, it`s usually the nurse. You know a good nurse is going to alert the doctor through really these acute changes. A good nurse would have examined this baby when the changes started.

You know we had a -- used to have a saying that the worst mistakes are not made by not knowing, they`re made by not looking.

GRACE: I like that.

OLIVER: Had the nurse taken the time to examine the baby, then a doctor could have been alerted.

GRACE: Out to Mark Hillman, clinical psychotherapist, author of "My Therapist is Making Me Nuts," joining me out of New York.

Hillman, what about what the parents are facing right now? There are would have, could have, should have. If I had barreled through that door two hours earlier, if I had insisted, if I had done this, if I had done that.

I mean come on, they took their children to not one, but two hospitals trying to help the baby. They took Malyia there. They were doing the best that they knew how.

MARK HILLMAN, CLINICAL PSYCHOTHERAPIST, AUTHOR OF "MY THERAPIST IS MAKING ME NUTS": That`s absolutely correct, and I applaud the father for busting in and finally demanding for their child to be seen. My concern is what about Christian and Jared, the other two children in this family who haven`t seen their parents for the past four months while they`re living with Malyia`s parents? Is there any counseling going on for them? That`s another question that needs to be addressed besides Malyia`s medical issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: I am sure that they`re sorry the way this turned out. And I hope one of the goals of this lawsuit is that hospitals and emergency rooms will take better care in the future of our children.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: You are seeing video regarding the discovery of a body, the discovery of remains.

Are they those of Mitrice Richardson? Just 24 years old.

To Debra Mark, Talkradio KABC. Debra, what can you tell us?

DEBRA MARK, ANCHOR, TALKRADIO 790 KABC: Nancy, eight small bones have been found in Malibu, and they believe to belong to Mitrice Richardson. And right now we still don`t know how she was -- we don`t know what the cause of death is, but we do know that more -- that remains have been found.

GRACE: To Jean Casarez. Bring the viewers up to date. What were the circumstances surrounding Mitrice`s disappearance?

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": This is a beautiful young lady. And she went to dinner in an upscale restaurant and she had trouble paying the bill. So she was detained, not only was she detained, she was taken to the sheriff`s department and she was held there.

She was ultimately released. But at that point she didn`t have a car, she didn`t have a car, she didn`t have money, she didn`t have her credit cars, because the car had been towed and there she was and that was the last point she was seen.

GRACE: For those of you just joining us, remains just found in an isolated area. Are they remains of a 24-year-old beauty Mitrice Richardson?

To Marc Klaas, president and founder, KlaasKids Foundation.

Marc, the story about what happened to Mitrice is very disturbing.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: It is very disturbing, and it looks to me like law enforcement bungled this story from the very beginning. I completely and totally understand the outrage that her parents have expressed.

And I understand why they want law enforcement to continue to delve into this and to try to find out if in fact she was murdered or if she inadvertently walked into this area in a confused state that evening.

GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest. This is Latice Sutton, this is Mitrice`s mother.

Miss Sutton, thank you so much for being with us. I know that this is not the answer that you had hoped for.

LATICE SUTTON, MOTHER OF MISSING 24-YEAR-OLD GIRL, FOUND DEAD, MITRICE RICHARDSON: Never.

GRACE: But I am learning that you had gone to the area and you actually discovered remains.

SUTTON: That is correct. That is where the actual request for the coroner`s office to go back out to the site to search for more remains. That`s where that began. That began back on November 6th, 2010.

And, you know, I really appreciate you having me on your show, Nancy, because I really believe that your show can help bring national attention to this injustice that I believe has occurred in Mitrice`s case.

There have been many, many mistakes that have occurred. And I feel that as a mother who has lost her child in the most tragic way, I can`t even grieve her because I`m too busy investigating this case.

GRACE: Miss Sutton.

SUTTON: Yes.

GRACE: I`ve got to tell you, as a crime victim myself, you are absolutely right. It`s hard enough to take in what has happened. But it`s like your duty to seek justice.

SUTTON: Yes. Absolutely.

GRACE: You`ve got that burden on your back as well. Please tell our viewers what happened.

SUTTON: Well, apparently my daughter was in the Malibu area for whatever her reasons were that night. And she ordered a meal, she started speaking gibberish and saying that she was from mars, didn`t have parents, and she was there to avenge Michael Jackson`s death.

We later learned that she was demonstrating a lot of perhaps mental behavioral issues. So it`s quite possible that she was having the onset of some type of a mental crisis. And the --

GRACE: Or she could have very easily been slipped something in her drink?

SUTTON: That is true.

GRACE: She was out at this restaurant bar.

SUTTON: Absolutely.

GRACE: She -- there`s -- she -- gorgeous young girl, she`s at this restaurant bar, she goes in, everything is fine. Then all of a sudden everything starts getting crazy.

SUTTON: Well, actually, Nancy, she was doing bizarre things before she even entered into the restaurant. She was getting into people`s cars and going through their CDs before she even went into the restaurant.

GRACE: I didn`t realize that.

SUTTON: But let`s fast forward, because what happened there, the real issue is the people that we depend on to protect us and to serve us, as well as to uphold our laws, they saw this behavior. They were told about this behavior from eyewitnesses.

They are the first responders. And instead of them holding her to be evaluated by a qualified professional, they took her in after making her leave her purse, her money, her debit cards, her cell phone, everything in her vehicle, had her vehicle towed, take her in for an hour and a half to two hours, process her, then release her in the middle of the night with no means to take care of herself, no way to get home.

They knew she wasn`t from the area because I told them, I told them she appears to be in a crisis, but they let her out and that was the last place she was ever seen, and I also learned after I viewed the video back in March of 2010 that shortly after Mitrice was released into the night, there was a deputy that exited the building out behind her.

Now that was not a shift change. There should not have been no deputies coming in or out. So I have a lot of questions and I don`t quite trust the authorities who are in charge to investigate this case to do a thorough job, because there is a conflict of interest. And that is one of the reasons why I`ve pushed to try to get the FBI involved. So I really --

GRACE: Let me go to Marc Harrold, former APD, former cop, now attorney and author.

Marc Harrold, what should the cops have done that night? They`re sending a girl out into the dark in the wee hours with no money and no way to get anywhere, and no car.

MARC HARROLD, FORMER OFFICER, ATLANTA PD, ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "OBSERVATIONS OF WHITE NOISE": Yes, this is a tough situation. Here they took her in for a fairly minor infraction. I don`t know if it was theft of services. They detained her for some reason.

They did put her in a situation where she pretty much just walked out and had no means to get anywhere. You know there are different ways you can have somebody examined even they`re not still in custody for a crime even if they`ve been released, bonded, protective custody, there are certain types of custodial arrangements. There`s of course Suicide Watch.

Here something she -- needs to be done so they have some protocols that people don`t just walk out and disappear like this because they have some responsibility after they detain them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think Mitrice got there on her own accord. And that`s why I`m lobbying and fighting very hard to find out some answers.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Remains were found in a remote Malibu Canyon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the confirmed remains of Mitrice Richardson.

SUTTON: I`m so sorry. I`m just -- I`m looking at the life of my baby flash before my eyes. My future is gone. That`s -- oh, my god.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: You are hearing the voice of Mitrice`s mother. Her mother with us tonight. Have remains of this 24-year-old beauty been found?

I want to go back to the mom. Latice Sutton. Miss Sutton.

SUTTON: Yes. Yes, ma`am.

GRACE: I hardly even know how to ask this. There`s no words. For you to explain to us what you`re thinking or what you`re feeling. But I want to know.

SUTTON: The best thing that I can -- well, the best illustration that I can give you is that it`s -- it`s very painful. Almost like being skinned alive. Every day I wake up to what, am I going do today to get closer to whoever murdered my daughter? That is my thought that I wake up with, and that`s what I go to bed with.

Because I believe that there is a murder out there because what has not been revealed by the authorities is that Mitrice`s body was naked. And we all know that based on how the investigators classify the cause of death is going to determine how they investigate the death and so --

GRACE: Well, I know one thing I can do.

SUTTON: Death is not being --

GRACE: And this is give the tip line, 877-LAPD-247. There`s a $25,000 reward.

Let`s stop and remember Marine Lance Corporal Craig Watson, 21, Union City, Michigan, killed Iraq. A second tour. Awarded Purple Heart, National Defense Service Medal, loved football, wrestling, church on Sunday. Leaves behind parents Jay and Shirley, brothers James, Kevin, Bradley. Serving the army.

Craig Watson, American hero.

Thanks to our guests. But especially to you.

And thank you and good night to friends of the show Stacy and Susan. Aren`t they beautiful?

Happy birthday tonight to friend of the show Tom Cartwright. Retired corporate lawyer who can still crack a contract. Father of three boys. Sings the solo "Jerusalem" every Palm Sunday and brings down the house.

Happy birthday, Tom.

And get well to Toby. A professional clown who comes from circus royalty. His dad, a clown. Mom, showgirl. We want you back on the bus as tour guide of Sarasota`s big top tours, touring the circus capital of the world.

Toby, we are rooting for you.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END