Justia Lawyer Rating for Robert D. Kreisman

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Terri Franklin had a history of hypertension. For that condition, she was prescribed Benicar. When she became pregnant at age 30, she continued to take Benicar while receiving prenatal care from obstetrician Dr. Alvin Sermons.

Her baby had a stroke in-utero, and after the birth, the baby was diagnosed as having brain damage, skull abnormalities, and intestinal and kidney problems. It is likely that the child will require a kidney transplant in the near future.

Franklin and the child’s father, individually and on the child’s behalf, sued Dr. Sermons and his practice, Dunwoody Obstetrics & Gynecology P.C., alleging that Dr. Sermons had negligently allowed Franklin to continue on the blood pressure medication while she was pregnant.
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Anna Scott was admitted to Jefferson Healthcare to deliver her first child. She was at first attached to a fetal heart monitor, which showed that her baby was healthy. She was then taken off the monitor for a six-hour period until her treating physician performed an artificial rupture of the membranes, after which Scott was then reattached to the fetal heart monitor.

The fetal heart monitor revealed that Scott’s baby had developed a worrisome heart rate pattern of repetitive variable decelerations with intermittent minimal variability.

Several hours later, Scott began to push. Her daughter, Lana, was born almost four hours later in a depressed condition with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck. Lana required 30 minutes of resuscitation. Lana’s Apgar scores were 3 at one minute and 4 at five minutes.
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The Illinois Appellate Court has ruled a woman may be able to hold the hospital liable for injuries her child sustained during labor and delivery.

The Illinois Appellate Court for the 5th District reversed a trial judge’s decision that the patient should have known the doctor who delivered her twins was independent from the hospital.

The appeals panel wrote that there were still questions as to whether the physician and the hospital made it appear the doctor was an agent of the institution rather than a contractor.
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Baby Doe was born prematurely and spent the first 98 days of her life in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit and special care nursery. The day after the baby’s discharge, her mother noticed that she was irritable, grunting, and not eating.

Doe’s mother called the hospital that day and spoke to Nurse Roe, who told the mother that Doe was fine and that she should simply keep her pediatric appointment for the following day.

Four hours after that call, Doe’s parents found Baby Doe turning blue in her crib. She was rushed to a hospital where she later died. An autopsy revealed that Doe’s death resulted from a serious but treatable bacterial infection.
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During the delivery of Baby Doe, a shoulder dystocia was encountered. That is the medical condition in which a fetus in labor and delivery has a shoulder caught on the pelvis of the mother. An obstetrician in this case performed maneuvers to try to resolve the dystocia.

However, Doe suffered a severe brachial plexus injury that necessitated surgery to repair the nerve avulsion. Brachial plexus injury to the child is the result of the push and tug that often takes place in a should dystocia situation during delivery. The baby’s shoulder and arm nerves are stretched such that permanent damage often occurs to the child’s arm.

Unfortunately, the surgery in this case was unsuccessful. Doe now has partially lost the use of his right arm and hand.
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The Supreme Court of Iowa affirmed the judgment of the district court dismissing the plaintiff’s medical malpractice claims against the medical provider defendants, holding that there was no reversible error.

The child involved in this case is identified as T.D., who was born Aug. 31, 2007 at the Henry County Health Center. Dr. James Widner, employed by Family Medicine of Mt. Pleasant P.C., was the physician in charge of T.D.’s prenatal care and delivery.

During labor and delivery, the child’s shoulder became stuck on his mother’s pelvis. The defendant physicians and nurses performed maneuvers to resolve the stuck shoulder. However, the plaintiff child T.D. was born with a permanent nerve injury, brachial plexus, preventing the normal use and function of the child’s left arm. Shoulder dystocia is a birth injury that occurs in cases just like this, when the baby’s shoulder gets stuck inside the mother’s pelvis. This condition is a medical emergency because the infant’s delay in birth may cause severe brain damage or death if not resolved in six minutes or less. Dr. Widner and the nurses performed maneuvers that resolved the shoulder dystocia in one minute and ten seconds. However, T.D. was born with a permanent injury to his left shoulder and arm, a nerve injury referred to as a brachial plexus that prevents normal use and function of his arm. T.D.’s delivery was captured on a 21-minute birth video recorded by T.D.’s aunt.
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Kimberly Kirkwood-Boulter was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital to deliver her first baby. During labor and delivery, the nurse responsible for monitoring the baby’s heart rate had difficulty differentiating Kirkwood-Boulter’s heartbeat from her unborn baby’s. This occurred during the second stage of labor, which lasted about 6 hours.

In spite of all of this, Kirkwood-Boulter was encouraged to push, and the obstetrical team did not switch from intermittent fetal monitoring by way of a handheld device to continuous monitoring.
Kirkwood-Boulter’s baby boy was born severely acidotic and not breathing. The baby’s Apgar scores were one at one minute and three at five minutes, which are low scores for a newborn. Now the child is 6 years old and suffers from brain damage. He cannot walk, talk or feed himself.

Kirkwood-Boulter and her husband sued the hospital, members of its delivery team, and the employer of the attending nurse, Cross Country Staffing Inc. It was alleged in the lawsuit that these defendants chose not to provide continuous monitoring during the labor and delivery.
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During delivery of newborn Sophie Vergara at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, there were signs of fetal distress. Nonetheless, the Kaiser treating medical providers continued with a vacuum-assisted delivery.

As a result of this difficult delivery, Sophie Vergara suffered a brachial plexus injury and brain damage that necessitated resuscitation and treatment with seizure medication.

Sophie is now 6 years old and has been diagnosed as having spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, which requires 24-hour-per-day medical attention.
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Lilia Torres began spotting during the eighth week of her pregnancy. She was 34 years old at the time. She went to a hospital, where an ultrasound was completed, and later followed up with her treating obstetrician after receiving a diagnosis of placenta previa and possible placenta accreta – a condition in which the placenta attaches too deeply to the uterine wall. For the rest of her pregnancy, she received medical care from several obstetricians and midwives.

At 39 weeks gestation, a cesarean section was scheduled and performed one day later by two obstetricians. After the delivery, she suffered a massive blood loss, necessitating a hysterectomy.

Torres, who lost at least 10 liters of blood, suffered cardiogenic and pulmonary shock. Shortly after, she died of complications of hemorrhagic shock and multiple-organ failure. She was survived by her husband and four minor children.
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This case arose from the tragic set of events involving A.F., a baby born with severe respiratory problems who developed permanent brain damage. A.F.’s mother, Kayla Butts, brought this lawsuit claiming that A.F.’s brain damage was caused by the medical malpractice of Dr. Sarah Hardy. It was alleged that Dr. Hardy should have transferred Baby A.F. from the hospital where A.F. was born to a hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit that could have provided the care A.F. needed in the hours after her birth.

After a bench trial, the district court agreed and entered judgment in favor of Kayla Butts for over $7 million in damages. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals considered whether she presented sufficient evidence to establish that Dr. Hardy violated the applicable standard of care.

Because the district court’s finding on that issue was clearly erroneous, the court of appeals reversed the district court’s order and vacated the judgment against Dr. Hardy.
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