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Show BABY GETS 50,000 FOR TERRIBLE BURNS OAKLAND, CaU Feb. 11. Will $10,-000 $10,-000 pay for a face marred and disfigured dis-figured beyond all hops of human restoration? Will that sum compensate compen-sate an IS months' old baby for the prospect of going through life with a face from which others will tum away; with horror? j These are the questions lawyers are asking here following a suit In which j De Lancy C. Hmith Jr., through his parents won what Is thought to be the largest sum ever awarded to a child In the legal history of the West, from his former nurse. Miss Gertrude Van Beek. who has been held responsible for hums resulting in the terrible disfigurement of the child's features. It was proven at the trial that the nurse set the baby in the bath tub and turned on the hot wafer. She left the room and forgot to return for several minutes. When she came back the child was writhing in boiling water and the flesh on his face and body was literally lit-erally cooked. For months the child's life wss despaired of. His ears have been destroyed, the flesh about his mouth burned away and his eye lids distorted so that he cannot close them. I The baby's father has given up eighty square inches of his skin to restore the baby's face, but the operation was unsuccessful. un-successful. Since the accident Miss Van Beek Is understood to have come into a large estate, and the father ftates he will spend every cent of the award in an attempt to restore the child to normality. |