The mother who received national attention last year for her lawsuit against the University Medical Center for the switch of her daughter at birth has filed a new set of charges against the hospital.
Paula K. Johnson, who had sought $31 million from the Medical Center in 1999, filed suit June 20 in Stafford County for $48 million.
The discovery of the switch came in 1998, when Paula Johnson, her ex-boyfriend Carlton Conley and her supposed daughter Callie undertook paternity tests in a child-support case between the estranged couple.
The tests showed that Callie was unrelated to either Johnson or Conley. This prompted officials from the Health Sciences Center to search among six other girls born in July 1995 for the parents' biological daughter.
Kevin Rogers and Whitney Chittum died just before the Medical Center was able to notify them of the news that their daughter Rebecca was actually the biological daughter of Paula Johnson.
Rebecca Chittum is now being raised by her non-biological grandparents after her assumed parents, Kevin Chittum and Whitney Rogers, were killed in a car accident in July 1998.
Johnson, whose previous suit was dismissed in February, alleges that the Medical Center and identification bracelet manufacturer, Precision Dynamics of California, were to blame for the switch.
According to Kathy Stern, Stafford County Circuit Court deputy clerk, the lawsuit claims that Precision Dynamics "did not exercise reasonable discretion" in designing, testing and marketing their identification bracelets.
Stern said the lawsuit also claims "the bracelet was put on too loosely" on the babies' wrists and ankles, contributing to the mix-up between the parents' biological children.
Stern said Johnson is seeking $24 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the Medical Center on behalf of Callie, the child she is raising. She also is suing Precision Dynamics for $12 million for breach of implied warranty for herself and $12 million on behalf of her biological daughter, Rebecca Chittum.
The suit alleges that damages stem from Callie's "loss of paternal companionship, mental anguish and loss of privacy."
One of Paula Johnson's lawyers, Cynthia Johnson of Charlottesville, said the suit is a 72-count document.
Precision Dynamics issued a statement that said it "will vigorously defend itself ... against any allegations that the design of its infant identification bracelet product was in any way responsible for the inadvertent baby switching at the University of Virginia Medical Center."
Precision Dynamics spokesman Lew Phelps said "although we sympathize greatly with the families [involved]," Precision Dynamics believes "the allegations in the lawsuit have no merit."
He said "the U.Va. hospital staff failed to follow" established procedures on putting the bracelets on the babies.
Johnson sued Precision Dynamics in June 1999 but asked in February that the lawsuit be dropped.
Stern said the suit claims the University was negligent in training its employees well enough on how to properly put on the ID bands. It also alleges that hospital employees moved the babies from their bassinets after their bracelets had fallen off and put Rebecca's bracelet on Callie and Callie's bracelet on Rebecca without confirming their identities, Stern said.
Randy Davis, deputy press secretary for Attorney General Mark L. Earley's office, said state officials have not yet been served with the lawsuit. University News Services Director Carol Wood said it is standard for the University not to respond to pending litigation.
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