Ambulance chaser? Read this

by Don Wheeler

Anyone who's read John Edwards' book "Four Trials" will not be able forget the last one. Our daughter Sarah is almost five now, and just thinking about what happened to Valerie Lakey brings tears to my eyes and shivers down my spine.

She was represented by John Edwards and her parents have chosen to pitch in on the Presidential contest.

Dear Iowa Caucusgoers,

Fourteen years ago, we were just a normal family with a healthy 5-year-old daughter, Valerie. Then on June 24, 1993, our world changed forever.

Valerie was playing in the local wading pool when the powerful drain suction at the bottom of the pool almost sucked the life out of her.

In the terrible days and weeks that followed, the only words we wanted to hear from anyone were, "I can help Valerie." And then we met John Edwards.

John took on the irresponsible manufacturer of the defective part and we learned that she wasn't the first child to be maimed and even killed by this company's absolute indifference, but they hid the truth.

In our darkest hours, John Edwards gave our family hope. And then he walked into that courtroom and have that irresponsible company hell, and we won.

John ensured that Valerie's medical expenses would be taken care of for the rest of her life. And he helped change the ways companies do business to make swimming pools safer for children.

We are so thankful that today, Valerie is much better, and we hope every day for her future.

John talks about the heroes he has met in his life, but to us, he is the hero. He has the courage to take on the toughest fights - and win. And he will always have the thanks of a grateful family who gave hope to in their darkest hour and helped ensure their child would have a chance at a better future.

Sincerely,

Sandy and David Lakey

p.s. We know you have an important decision to make, not just for Iowa, but for the rest of this country on January 3rd. We know that John Edwards is the best person to lead this country and we hope you will agree.

John writes about the testimony given by the mother of a child (Brandon) also at the pool that day.

"'We were just standing there talking when I heard Valerie say - I heard her call, 'Help' - it wasn't very loud. It was just a little, you know, kind of 'Help'. And I looked over to the pool and saw her sitting in the middle of the baby pool with legs, you know, Indian style.'

'And I asked her - I said, 'Honey, is this a for-real help or are you all just playing?' Because sometimes they would play, you know, 'Help-help', you know. And so she said, 'No, this is for real.''"

The mother explains she shouted to David Lakey for help and the two of them tried to free Valerie. Another person joined the effort, but to no avail. Valerie began to say that her stomach was hurting "a little bit".

Finally someone thinks to shut off the pool pump.

A warning: the story gets pretty rough from here.

Brandon's mother continues, "And that's when I saw there was - the water was really red with blood and there was tissue all around."

Valerie's mother, Sandy arrives at about this point and Brandon's mother says in a quaking voice, "Sandy, I'm holding her intestines in my hands."

John's narrative picks up.

A trauma surgeon on call at Wake Medical Center led the team of doctors who saved Valerie's life after a five hour surgery. But the furious suction of the pool drain had torn out 80 percent of her small intestine and 50 percent of her large intestine.

I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say the this was only the beginning of the hell Valerie and her family would endure.

John writes:

And why? Why did all of this happen? Because of a wading pool drain cover that slid away so easily that any child could have pushed it away. Many had.

Later on:

Five years before the accident, when Medfield (the club where the accident occurred) had purchased a Max-Flo pump from Hayward to provide circulation to the wading pool, which had a single drain, Hayward already knew there was a hazard of entrapment in a single drain pool - it knew an obstruction, like the body of a little girl over a single suction-suctioned drain, would create an immense vacuum - and yet it provided no warnings about that fact to purchasers. Nor did the company install vacuum breakers or shutoff valves.

To it's credit, Hayward did settle with the Lakeys.

The three parties that settled did so because the accepted the role their conduct had played in the great harm done to Valerie. Only one part refused to acknowledge its responsibility.

Sta-Rite, the manufacturer maintained it's innocence.

Was Sta-Rite in the dark about these (other) incidents and the safety of its products? Hardly. We subpoenaed documents about the purchase of Swimquip and discovered that as early as 1984, Sta-Rite knew about the evisceration of a little boy in Henderson and about other suction-entrapment cases. Company documents also revealed that throughout the 1980s, Sta-Rite officials had discussed the need for warnings and safety decals for its products with the company's attorneys, who had already defended the company in several claims resulting from drain related accidents.

The product liability statute made this a tough case, as clear as it seems to any reasonable person. So John Edwards and his partner in this action, David Kirby, prepared like crazy.

In 1996, David Kirby tried Valerie's case before four different focus groups. All four times the mock jury found against him.

The sticking point seemed to be that since the club had not used the screws to attach the drain, the company could claim under North Carolina law that the design had been modified or altered.

While wading through the thousands of pages of Sta-Rite company documents, David found a catalogue for the same model of anti-vortex cover the Medfield pool club had purchased. Sure enough, there was the illustration of the disk shaped object with the two screw holes, but the accompanying instructions mentioned nothing about screws. The language from the catalog, which we would introduce at trial and which I would quote in my closing argument, seemed clear: "The anti-vortex plate shall fit frame securely and be held in frame by four peripheral snap segments." It stated that the four prongs directly underneath the cover were the means of attaching it and - since there was no reference to any screws - of attaching it securely.

As the trial began, John write about the frustrations of trying to seat unbiased jurors. Tough as it was for him, he had great empathy for the Lakeys.

As we quickly ran through our allotment of peremptory strikes, Sandy and David Lakey sat beside me and tried to bite down on their emotions. But it it's hard to sit there and listen to strangers say, "Lawsuits like these are what's wrong with America!" and then go home to your innocent daughter and her feeding tubes.

Edwards and Kirby had pressed Sta-Rite to produce documents of similar cases and had received only two. So they refined the request a bit and asked for documents pertaining to all suction-entrapment cases and documents involving Sta-Rite's predecessor Swimquip. The judge agreed to rule on the relevance - with no guarantee they'd be admitted. (Discovery was long past at this point).

But days passed and no documents. We were well into our testimony when I again brought up the matter with Judge Farmer. Back in the judge's chambers, he asked Gary Parsons (Sta-Rite's attorney) where the documents were.

"Your Honor," he said, "they're on a truck from Wisconsin."

I don't think anyone took a breath for a second or two.

"On a truck! I thought you said you didn't have anything! And now you're telling me you had to bring them here on a truck?" I had rarely seen a judge so angry. "you bring them to this courtroom the moment they arrive!"

...The day after receiving the truckload of documents, we made a motion to amend our original complaint to conform to the new evidence. We asked the judge to permit us to add a claim for punitive damages, based on Sta-Rite's willful and wanton negligence. Parsons protested that it was too late to amend the claims, but Judge Farmer was not sympathetic. He granted our motion.

There are several pages that follow about grueling testimony and especially the difficulties around needing to put Valerie on the stand. Then through a bit of serendipity, while cross examining a defense witness, Edwards discovered that someone in the company had actually drafted a warning about the potential hazards of this drain design. He's even retained a copy.

"Would you please read that to the jury?" I asked.

He did. The warning that Mr. Coolidge had written concerning the anti-vortex cover was almost identical tot the warning our experts had said - had insisted - should have come with the product. But that warning had not come with many of the pool drain covers sold by Sta-Rite - and it had not come with the drain cover that had sat at the bottom of the Medfield children's wading pool.

John Edwards ended his closing statement to the jury with this - bringing things back to the humanity of the whole thing.

"I want to leave you with one thought." I couldn't let go yet. "When Sandy was testifying, she told you about a conversation she had with Valerie. And what she said is, Valerie said to her, 'Mommy, I don't think anybody's ever going to want to marry me.'

"And Sandy said, "Well, Valerie why do you say that?'

"She said, 'Well, because of my button.'

"And Sandy said, 'Oh, that's not true.' And then she said, 'Valerie, I'm sorry, so sorry, that this happened to you. I wish it had happened to me instead.'

"You remember her answer? 'Mommy don't say that. I never want this to happen to anybody else.'

"Only you - only you - have the power to make that wish come true."

The jury came back with an award of $25 million in compensatory damages for the Lakeys. The Lakeys agreed not to pursue punitive damages if Sta-Rite honored the award.

Several weeks ago I had a conversation with Michael Dvorak, our county Prosecutor. He pointed out to me that in some instances, plaintiffs attorneys are better equipped to initiate needed change than anyone else.

Sometimes our legislatures fail us. Sometimes regulatory agencies fail us.

Sometimes it is only a gifted attorney who can deliver justice and protection for others.