By Scott Hiaasen
Plain Dealer Reporter

A Cuyahoga County jury found the Cleveland Clinic responsible for the 1997 death of a 10-year-old girl, hitting the hospital with a $6.5 million civil verdict Wednesday.

During an eight-day trial in Common Pleas Court, lawyers for the family of Grace Rusnak said Clinic doctors failed to diagnose the Cleveland girl's failing heart condition - even though the doctor that referred the girl to the Clinic said he thought she was in heart failure.

Clinic doctors, however, thought Grace's primary problem was with her liver and kidneys, and they never treated her for the heart condition that killed her within six hours of coming to the hospital attorney Nicholas Phillips said.

"She had a very good chance of survival, if only they gave her the treatment," Phillips said yesterday.

"Instead of prolonging her life, they actually shortened her life."

Grace had been ill through most of May 1997. Doctors first thought it was the flu, but when her condition got worse - her breathing turned to a gasp, she had no energy, and she complained of chest pain - Grace's parents took her to a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Parma.

A doctor there believed she was in heart failure, and rushed Grace to heart specialists at the Cleveland Clinic, Phillips said.

But Grace never, saw a heart specialist at the Clinic, Phillips said. Instead, the Clinic doctors treated her for dehydration.

As it turned out, Grace had an obscure virus called Coxsackie B, which attacked the heart and caused her heart failure. With the proper treatment, monitoring and medications, the virus could have passed and Grace could have lived, Phillips said.

Clinic lawyers, however, disputed this during the trial, arguing that Grace's condition, an enlarged heart, was incurable, and, her death all but inevitable. Clinic officials said they will appeal the verdict.

"This child arrived at the Clinic with an incurable heart problem and in grave medical condition - dying within hours of arrival," the Clinic said in a statement. "The physicians and nurses at the Clinic provided excellent care in an attempt to save het life."

Jurors deliberated for about 11 hours over two days before reaching a verdict Wednesday afternoon. For Grace's mother, Debble Rusnak, the verdict was a vindication after a six-year legal fight. "We knew in our hearts something was drastically wrong that night, and mistakes were made," Rusnak said yesterday. "We're just very thankful that the jury saw what it was and wasn't persuaded because they (the Cleveland Clinic) is a big corporation."