Get ready for summer with our Summer Camp Guide, pages 11-14 February 14, 2024
Our 207th year | Vol. 207, No. 7 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50 VIRGINIA PRESS ASSOCIATION: BEST SMALL NEWSPAPER IN VIRGINIA 2017-2022
After a tragic death, a call for change
Warrenton family who lost their toddler joins effort to lift Va.’s cap on malpractice claims By Hunter Savery
Fauquier Times Staff Writer
When Carson and Kallie McRae brought their 2-year-old to the emergency room, they expected that hospital staff would help him get better. Instead, their world was shattered when a nurse mistakenly gave their young son Artemis a lethal dose of a common painkiller. Because of their heartbreaking experience, the McRaes jumped on board with the latest effort to lift Virginia’s cap on medical malpractice claims. It won’t happen in 2024 — a bill the McRaes supported was voted down last week — but the lawmaker who authored the bill says he’ll keep trying to change the state law. On Thursday, Feb. 8, the state Senate’s Finance Committee rejected a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Stanley, a Republican who represents a large swath of southwest Virginia, that aimed to ensure that families hurt by medical malpractice would be able
COURTESY PHOTO
Carson and Kallie McRae with their son Artemis, 2, before he fell ill in late 2022. to seek enough money through the courts to cover long-term care. Both Democrats and Republicans backed the bill.
In November 2022, Carson and Kallie brought their son Artemis to the emergency room at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital in
Charlottesville with stomach pains. Hospital staff quickly diagnosed Artemis with appendicitis — a common and treatable illness. But what should have been a routine part of the treatment went awry when a traveling nurse gave Artemis a 1,000-milligram dose of Tylenol. The typical dose for a young child is a mere 175 mg. The mistake put Artemis into liver failure and left him with severe brain damage. “What should have been a basic and routine procedure turned into a living hell,” Carson McRae told state lawmakers in a Senate committee meeting last week. Despite being a widely used overthe-counter painkiller, Tylenol is a common culprit for overdoses. In fact, overdoses of Tylenol, generically known as acetaminophen, are the No. 1 cause of liver transplants in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health. See MALPRACTICE, page 2
It’s Valentine’s Day for horses, too Breeding auction hints at better racing future for Va. By Betsy Burke Parker
Special to the Fauquier Times
As the 2024 calendar arrives at Valentine’s Day, romance is in the air. In Virginia horse country and around the thoroughbred industry, Feb. 14 is the traditional start of the racehorse breeding season in the Northern Hemisphere. Starting on Valentine’s Day is partly for fun, but it’s
Virginia’s world-class horse breeding
There are about 1,000 thoroughbred breeders across Virginia, primarily in Loudoun and Fauquier counties. The state is home to about 29,500 horses worth more than $500 billion. Some of the nation’s — and the world’s — top breeders have been based in Fauquier: The Evans family’s Buckland Farm and Spring Hill Farm in Warrenton have produced multiple classic winners. The late Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Farm in Upperville remains the only owner-breeder to win America’s Kentucky Derby (Virginia-bred Sea Hero in 1993), the English Derby (Virginia-bred Mill Reef in 1971) and the French equivalent, the Arc (Mill Reef.) also serious science in a serious business: February marks the earliest time you can breed a racehorse. The thoroughbred breeding season runs until late May. By
tradition, all racehorses born in the same year are given Jan. 1 as a birthdate and treated as the same age. See HORSE, page 4
PHOTO BY BARRY REIGHTLER
Thoroughbred Fortune Ticket’s brother, Gun Runner, is the leading sire and stands for $250,000.
SPORTS: Kettle Run hosts Fauquier in region boys basketball showdown; girls basketball, region swim report. PAGES 15, 16
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