By Chris Welner Toronto Star

Antonella Giannone is a bright and energetic 10-year-old who has just been awarded $3.27 million - plus five years' interest - in Canada's largest-ever malpractice award.

"Money doesn't change my life, it just buys more stuff. It won't bring my arm back," the Grade 5 student at All Saints Catholic School said in an interview yesterday.

"(Playmates) used to call me so many different names, but now that they know me better and my character - just because I have one arm doesn't mean I have some disease."

The pretty Etobicoke girl with big brown eyes and thick brown hair is getting the money five years after she broke her right arm in a fall, then developed gangrene and had to have it amputated just above the elbow.

Dr. Howard Weinberg admitted liability in a trial last fall and has been ordered to make the record payment. He will appeal.

'Happy, stunned'

Antonella's mother Anna, 43, said she was "happy, stunned, and emotional" when her lawyer called with the news in the morning. Her husband Mario, 50, and sons Frank, 14, and Nicky, 6, can close another chapter in their painful ordeal. But it also starts a new story line that will last the rest of their daughter's life.

"People assume $3 million is a lot of money, but not when you need medical attention all your life," she said. "It's not like you won a lottery and can just have fun for the rest of your life. There's always sadness. You can never take that away."

Mrs. Giannone said the award is high, but prosthetics were "little more than hooks" several years ago and nothing compared to the lighter, faster electrical arms being developed today that cost up to $50,000.

She'll have to have a new one every five years because they wear out.

The award by Ontario Supreme Court Justice John J. Fitzgerald includes $953,867 for "the best prosthetic devices available" through her life, $342,532 for lost future income, $161,274 for housekeeping expenses, $75,000 for investment management, special damages of $16,514 and general damages of $125,000. The largest chunk of the award, $1,615,000 is to cover income tax the full amount will generate in her lifetime.

Held in trust

Interest due on the award is about $450,000, bringing the total to more than $3.7 million, said the Giannones' lawyer, Robert Roth.

The money is being held in trust with the Supreme Court of Ontario and will be turned over to Giannone when she turns 18. Her father Mario Giannone has been granted $200,000 to cover current expenses and he can apply to the court for more money for any additional expenses.

Defence lawyer David Doherty said the award outstrips previous cases where a limb has been lost by more than $2.5 million.

"There is a serious danger she will develop skin problems, neck pain, and psychological problems with depression and will probably suffer an emotional crisis during adolesence," Fitzgerald said in his judgment.

"I hope that Antonella will understand (court findings) are based upon probabilities and cannot take into account the inner strength and courage of a person it has no way to measure."

Antonella had fallen from the verandah of her parents' Westbank Crescent home and suffered a severe compound fracture of her arm in August, 1981.

Cast too tight

She was treated at Humber Memorial Hospital by Weinberg and discharged the following day with her arm in a cast. When she returned the next day running a fever, Weinberg said the little girl's cast was too tight, split it to relieve pressure and prescribed 222s for pain. But the little girl was brought back to the hospital again a day later where the cast was removed and Weinberg discovered she had gas gangrene.

She was taken to the Hospital for Sick Children where surgeons amputated her arm below the elbow.

"I didn't want to accept (amputation) or believe it," said Anna Giannone. "I thought they (Sick Kids doctors) were just a bunch of liars - my thought was wrong. I realized those people did everything possible to save her life. There was no other choice."

Giannone said her family was shattered by the tragedy and didn't know how to cope.

Antonella became like a baby "who needed a lot of attention I wasn't used to giving her. I had to wash her, dress her, feed her and tie her shoes - things you don't think of if you have two hands," she said.

Phantom pains

Dressed in a pink and white party dress with pink patent- leather shoes, Antonella was ready for a steady stream of media callers.

She told The Star how she still suffers phantom pains (in the arm that isn't there) and how everyday there is real pain that "feels like a hammer's pounding on my arm."

She has had to learn to write with her left hand and still relies on classmates for some note-taking in her French- immersion program. The youngster already speaks English and Italian.

She says math is her favorite subject and likes playing with the computers, although like most 10 year-olds, her favorite part of school is recess where she can skip rope or play basketball.

The myo-electric prosthesis she now wears is little more than cosmetic, although it can move the elbow and grip solid objects in its fingertips.

"When I was little, I thought I'd like to be a nurse or doctor but I don't know now," she said.

Dr. Weinberg's lawyer said he will file an appeal next week.

"We think there are significant questions about the way His Lordship has calculated the award," Doherty said. "Whether it's out of line or not is up to the Court of Appeal, but given awards in similar cases in Canada, I was surprised."

An Ontario Supreme Court judge last November ordered an anesthetist to pay a record $2.2 million to a Scarborough woman who suffered permanent brain damage and blindness during an operation he supervised.

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