The city of Tulsa has agreed to pay a total of $315,000 to the parents of two unrelated children who died from a rare, water-borne disease after playing at a Mohawk Park splash pad in the summer of 2005.
Natasha and Terrell Hampton and Diana Doxey and Martinez Owens filed a "friendly" lawsuit on Monday in Tulsa County District Court.
On Tuesday, Tulsa County Judge Jefferson Sellers approved a judgment in the case.
The parents alleged in their lawsuit that the city was negligent in the deaths of their sons.
Terrell Hampton II, 9, and Martinez Owens, 7, both died Aug. 5, 2005, after becoming sick with the naegleria fowleri infection days earlier.
The $315,000 will be split evenly between the two families.
"The city did the right thing by sparing the bereaved families the stress and strain of a prolonged legal process," said the families' Arizona attorney, Roger Strassburg.
Interim City Attorney Deirdre Dexter said in analyzing the case, "It was determined it was in the best interest in everyone involved -- the families, the city, the citizens -- to get this resolved."
She said the issue was resolved and the settlement approved before the lawsuit was filed. The city is not admitting negligence by settling the case, "only a recognition of the uncertainty of trial or an appeal," the judgment document states.
"There are just times when it is better for everyone involved and concerned to try and resolve something without regard to admission to liability or negligence," Dexter said.
The settlement closes the case and any further claims against the city by the plaintiffs, the judgment states.
The lawsuit alleged that both boys were exposed to the naegleria fowleri amoeba while playing at the splash pad in the city park.
The Tulsa City-County Health Department tests of the water at the splash pad and nearby pools of stagnant water in the park found naegleria, but not the fowleri species detected in the boys, said Matt Sharpe, emergency response coordinator with the department.
Strassburg, however, said his experts did find fowleri species at the park site.
Naegleria is caused by an amoeba that lives in warm water. The rare infection caused by naegleria cannot be contracted by drinking water or merely wading in it; the water must go up a person's nose, where the amoeba enters the body through the nasal passage and then follows the central nervous system to the brain.
Scientists have documented about 200 cases worldwide in the past 40 years. Children are thought to be more susceptible because they have weaker immune systems.
The water park and playground adjacent to the Tulsa Zoo opened in July 2003. After the illnesses, the city closed the splash pad and officials said the system would be revamped so it no longer used recirculated water.
P.J. Lassek 581-8382
