Lawsuit blames infant's death on BP

TEXAS CITY — A Hitchcock woman is suing BP claiming her son’s death resulted from emissions released at the company’s Texas City refinery earlier this year.

BP faces a state investigation for releasing more than 500,000 pounds of material, including several tons of benzene, into the air. The 40-day incident started April 6 and ended May 16, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and BP.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday morning in the 212th State District Court by attorney Anthony Buzbee, claims 6-month-old Julius Provost was diagnosed with pneumonia and that symptoms got worse in April and May while the infant was being cared for at an aunt’s house and a nearby day care center.

BP maintains the release posed no threat on the community and that air monitors at the refinery and from the community monitoring network detected no dangerous concentrations of harmful emissions.

The aunt’s house is on Second Avenue South, less than a mile from BP’s refinery, according to the lawsuit. The boy spent most of his time at the aunt’s home, the boy’s mother, Sharon Champion, said.

The baby died June 23. A medical examiner’s report listed the cause of death as undetermined.

The medical examiner’s office also noted that while tests could not confirm the cause of death, “co-sleeping” could not be ruled out.

Co-sleeping refers to an infant sleeping with someone else, usually an adult, in the same bed. In some cases, adults have rolled onto and suffocated infants.

Champion said her son was asleep at the foot of the bed at her home in Hitchcock while the boy’s father, Jalcobie Provost, was asleep on one side of the bed.

She said when the boy didn’t wake up for his bottle, she went into the room and found him not breathing. Champion said that in April before his death, she had taken her son to the Mainland Medical Center emergency room because she noticed he was having breathing problems.

From there, he was transferred to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center. In May, she took the boy to the emergency center at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Then, when it appeared an infection had set in, she returned to Mainland Medical on June 14. Eight days later, he died.

She said each visit with medical professionals ended with the same results — they could not pinpoint why the boy was sick.

She said she did not follow up the emergency room visits with trips to a family doctor.

“If I had just known what was coming out of (the refinery), I would have asked doctors to make sure that’s not what was making him sick,” Champion said.

She said she didn’t make a connection until The Daily News reported the emissions.

Buzbee said he considered the failure to inform the public about the release to be BP’s “biggest crime.”

BP officials have said if they thought the release had posed a threat to the community, they would have notified local officials or made a public announcement sooner.

The lawsuit claims all of the children at the aunt’s house had respiratory and sinus problems during the time of the emissions event. Others suffered severe headaches, Buzbee said.

“We are saddened to hear of the death of a child in our community,” BP spokesman Michael Marr said in a statement. “Given the circumstances, we will not have any further comment on this lawsuit.”

Refinery manager Keith Casey wrote in a letter to Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle said: “During the entire 40-day period of this event, the site’s recently enhanced fence line monitors, which measure for the presence of benzene and other constituents, did not signal elevated readings or ground level impact.

“Similarly, air-quality monitors in the community that are maintained by external parties did not show elevated readings throughout the 40-day period.”

BP faces a lawsuit by the Texas attorney general over the incident, as well as a $10 billion lawsuit Buzbee filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of 2,200 clients.

Buzbee said he expected to add as many as 18,000 clients to that lawsuit within the next few weeks. He also has added Casey as a named co-defendant to the case because of the letter.

The lawsuit filed Thursday is the first to claim a death connected to the emissions. Buzbee said details of the lawsuit were going to be released during a news conference this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Galveston County District Clerk Latonia Wilson said 50 lawsuits had been filed in state courts and that she expected 1,500 more within the month.