H.D. was admitted to a hospital in labor. The nurses and midwife observed H.D. throughout the night without any notable changes. However, early the next morning, the fetal monitor showed non-reassuring signs of the unborn child. No one consulted an obstetrician or warned a doctor about the non-reassuring signs.
About six hours later, H.D. delivered her son; he was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times. The hospital’s resuscitation team was attending to another patient, which resulted in an 8-minute delay in having the child intubated.
As a consequence, the baby suffered severe brain damage. He is now 6 years old and has cerebral palsy, developmental delays and a seizure disorder.
A guardian on behalf of the child sued the hospital claiming it chose not to timely perform a Caesarean section. This would have been the standard of care to save the baby from harm. The guardian also claimed that the nurses should have contacted an obstetrician about the worrisome fetal monitoring signals and called for a resuscitation team to be present at the time of delivery.
The jury’s verdict of $8.45 million includes interest. The parties reached a confidential post-verdict settlement.
The attorneys representing H.D. and the guardian who brought the lawsuit were Kenneth M. Suggs and Gerald D. Jowers of Columbia, S.C., who achieved a fantastic result for this family and their child.
At the trial, the plaintiffs engaged several experts, which included an obstetrician, a neonatologist, a life-care planner and a pediatric neurologist.
The defendants engaged experts including a midwife, a labor and delivery nurse, a pediatrician and an obstetrician.
Lewis v. Northeast Georgia Medical Center, No. 2012-SV362 (Ga., Hall Co. St. Oct. 20, 2014).
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling birth injury cases, brain injury cases, traumatic brain injury cases and catastrophic injury cases for individuals and families who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 38 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Maywood, Hillside, Buffalo Grove, Burbank, Blue Island, Harwood Heights, Hanover Park, Melrose Park, Northlake, Lake Bluff, Streamwood, Schiller Park, Skokie, Palos Park, Palatine, Riverside, Riverdale, Richton Park, Aurora, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Worth, Tinley Park, Western Springs, Chicago (Marquette Park, Roseland, Pullman, Lake Calumet, Riverdale, East Side), Evergreen Park, and South Barrington, Ill.
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