Our client’s medical malpractice claim arose out of the defendants’ mismanagement of the labor and delivery of a minor child at a local hospital. The parents of the minor child brought suit against the hospital, a certified nurse midwife, and a local midwifery care group. The defendant CNM failed to appropriately respond to abnormalities noted during labor, including not recognizing and responding to signs of arrested labor, inappropriately using labor enhancing drugs during labor and inappropriately continuing attempts at vaginal birth after a prior cesarean delivery. The rigors of labor led to a rupture of the uterus, necessitating delivery of the minor plaintiff by emergency cesarean section, and causing her to suffer asphyxia and associated brain injury, aspiration of blood, aspiration syndrome and respiratory distress. The minor plaintiff has since been diagnosed with cerebral palsy with associated motor impairments related to asphyxia at birth and requires ongoing treatment, care and supervision.
The parties reached a settlement for a confidential amount.
Our client, a 19-year old man, suffered injuries, following his birth in 1985. His mother came under the care of the defendant doctors, for the management of her pregnancy and prenatal care, and for the management of her labor and delivery. The defendants’ failed to properly monitor, evaluate, and manage our client and his mother during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery. As a result, our client has suffered shoulder dystocia, Erb’s palsy, and other associated injuries and impairments.
The parties settled after suit but prior to trial for a confidential amount.
Our clients had a medical negligence case against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act arising from the death of a minor plaintiff seven days after his birth. The plaintiffs allege that a family practice physician who is deemed a federal employee under the Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act, failed to respond to signs of fetal distress during labor, failed to recognize the failure of the progression of labor, failed to recommend a caesarean delivery, failed to request an obstetrical consult, failed to timely request the presence of a pediatrician, and otherwise failed to appropriately manage the pregnancy, labor and delivery.
Additionally, at the time of the labor and delivery, the physician had significant personal problems and family problems and was under police investigation for several felony offenses arising from his relationship with a patient a few months earlier. The minor plaintiff suffered brain injury, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and other injuries and impairments resulting in his death seven days after delivery.
VERDICT/SETTLEMENT: $499,000.00
Our clients, the parents of an infant child, brought suit against a defendant doctor, a local hospital, and an area pediatric practice. The defendants failed to properly manage the minor child’s medical care in that they failed to recognize and respond timely and appropriately to the plaintiff’s neonatal respiratory distress. Due to the defendant’s negligence, the minor infant’s condition, persistent pulmonary hypertension, progressed and worsened causing him to suffer profound and prolonged oxygen deprivation and associated brain injury, resulting in hypotonic cerebral palsy, movement disorder, and global developmental delays.
The parties reached a settlement for a confidential amount.
Our client’s mother was admitted to the hospital for induction at 39 weeks secondary to a large-for-gestational-age fetus. The defendant noted her insulin-dependent gestational DM status and her previous history of delivering a child who suffered Erb’s palsy due to shoulder dystocia. The defendant documented there was some concern for another episode of shoulder dystocia. The infant’s fetal weight estimate was 8 pounds. Pitocin induction was initiated and the mother progressed to full cervical dilation at 1550. The baby was delivered at 1558. Shoulder dystocia was encountered. The baby’s birth weight was 9 pounds, 4 ounces (4190 grams). He was discharged on with a diagnosis of left brachial plexus injury (Erb’s palsy). A caesarian section was never offered nor advised by the defendant. The defendant knew the history of the mother’s delivering a child who suffered from Erb’s palsy as a result of shoulder dystocia and that the mother suffered from gestational diabetes. Tests suggested that the minor plaintiff was a large baby. With the above, the risks of a shoulder dystocia occurring were significant; thus, a caesarian section should have been offered and strongly advised. However the defendant failed to do so. The minor child suffers from a serious and permanent condition and he will continue to suffer physical pain, injury, disability, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, lost earnings and earning capacity. He will also continue to incur life-long medical expenses and costs associated with his birth injury.
This case settled at private mediation for a confidential amount.
Our clients were a 34-year-old female and her minor child. The defendant local hospital, defendant obstetrical practice, and defendant doctor failed to properly monitor the woman and her child during labor, failed to recognize and respond to signs of fetal distress, and failed to timely deliver or otherwise intervene in the labor and delivery process of the minor plaintiff. Due to the defendants’ negligence, and lack of intervention, the child suffered profound injuries, including prolonged oxygen deprivation and associated severe and permanent brain injury, a fractured skull, seizures, multi-organ system dysfunction, developmental disabilities, physical and emotional pain and suffering and other injuries and impairments.
The parties settled prior to trial for a confidential amount.
Our clients were a 33-year-old man, a 32- year-old woman, and their minor child. This claim arose out of the medical care and treatment of the woman and her son, with regard to her pregnancy, labor and delivery, by the defendants, an area hospital, and a medical practice. Due to the defendants’ negligent failure to timely deliver the minor child, he suffered extensive injuries, including severe asphyxia and extreme acidosis, which resulted in severe neurologic injury, seizure disorder, orthopedic injury, severe oral-motor dysfunction, cognitive impairment, severe developmental delays, spastic quadriparesis, hypertonicity of his extremities, and other physical injuries consistent with cerebral palsy and retardation, all of which required extraordinary ongoing treatment, care and supervision.
The parties settled prior to trial for a confidential amount.
Our clients were the husband and daughter of a deceased 35-year-old landscape architect, who was injured in May of 2002, during her hospitalization at a seacoast area hospital. On May 21, 2002, the decedent was admitted to the hospital for a planned labor induction following the unexplained intrauterine demise of her second child. Following delivery, the decedent began hemorrhaging and was emergently taken to the operating room where the course of her demise began and the medical errors compounded until her death. The defendants failed to appropriately diagnose and treat the cause of the decedent’s bleeding following the delivery of her stillborn child. The defendants’ took the decedent to the operating room to attempt to stop her bleeding, and, during that time the defendant anesthesiologists with admittedly negligible experience in central line placement, unsuccessfully attempted numerous times to place a central line, puncturing the decedent’s intercostal artery and lacerating her subclavian vein as she continued hemorrhaging in the operating room. For multiple reasons, the defendants failed to adequately replace all of the blood and fluids the woman had already lost and they delayed getting her back to the operating room in time to treat these conditions via thoracotomy. Following her second surgery, the decedent was taken to the ICU where the nursing staff subsequently failed to properly monitor, document or report her condition, which resulted in false reports of her vital signs to the defendant attending physician. These reports resulted in the defendant doctor ordering the administration of Lopressor, a contraindicated medication. The nurse in the ICU administered this contraindicated medication while knowing it was inappropriate and without reporting the order to the proper chain of command, the medication stopped the woman’s heart from beating, causing her ultimate demise.
The parties reached confidential settlements after suit was filed but prior to trial.
On July 12 and 13, 2003, our client, a 20-year-old woman, presented to the defendant OB/GYN for treatment of left lower quadrant pain during her second pregnancy. The defendant did not perform an adequate laboratory or radiology work-up and mis-diagnosed the plaintiff’s pain from multiple ovarian cysts during a healthy uterine pregnancy as being pain from an unruptured ectopic pregnancy and administered methotextrate to abort the ectopic pregnancy. As a result of administering the methotextrate, the woman suffered an unwanted and unnecessary incomplete abortion of a healthy uterine pregnancy. For weeks after this incident, the plaintiff suffered significant abdominal and pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding and cramping, severe headaches, and nausea. She continues to experience severe emotional distress as a result of the defendant’s negligence and her loss.
The parties reached a confidential settlement after filing suit but prior to trial.
This is a medical malpractice claim arising out of the defendant obstetrician, obstetrical group and hospital’s management of the plaintiff’s pregnancy, labor and delivery. The plaintiffs’ claims against the defendants revolved around the defendants’ failure to appropriately monitor and manage the plaintiff’s labor and delivery and the minor plaintiff’s newborn resuscitation and management. As a result the newborn plaintiff suffered profound and prolonged oxygen deprivation and associated brain injury during labor, delivery and during the early newborn period. Shortly following her birth, the minor plaintiff was transferred to a tertiary care facility where the diagnosis of neonatal encephalopathy with seizures was suspected to be secondary to the prolonged interval of relative hypoxia. Over the next several days the minor plaintiff’s neurologic status worsened and she became flaccid with no movements, no eye opening and no spontaneous respirations. The minor plaintiff experienced continued seizure activity and an MRI performed at five days of life showed significant ischemic injury to all cortical regions and the basal ganglia. In light of the poor prognostic significance of these findings, the parents of the minor plaintiff made the painful decision to withdraw life support causing them to witness the suffering, deterioration and death of their daughter.
The parties settled after suit but prior to trial for a confidential amount.
This is a medical malpractice claim arising from the hospital’s mismanagement of the plaintiff's labor and delivery. The plaintiff’s claims against the hospital revolved around the failure to recognize the extent and degree of risk present to the plaintiff and her unborn child, the failure to recognize and act upon the presenting signs of maternal and fetal stress, improper interpretation of fetal heart monitor tracings, mismanagement of the administration of Pitocin, the failure to advocate for and ensure the timely delivery of the minor plaintiff and the failure to exercise due care to ensure the physical well-being of the plaintiff and her newborn during the delivery process. The minor plaintiff suffered from profound brain damage and had no perceptible cognitive function and virtually no purposeful movement. The minor plaintiff died while the suit was pending.
The parties settled after suit but prior to trial for a confidential amount.
This is a medical malpractice claim arising out of the defendant obstetrician’s and the defendant hospital’s management of the plaintiff’s labor and delivery. The plaintiffs’ claims against the defendants revolved around the defendants’ failure to properly manage the plaintiff’s medical care throughout her labor and delivery and timely deliver the minor plaintiff. As a result, the minor plaintiff suffered profound and prolonged oxygen deprivation and associated permanent brain injury, requiring extraordinary ongoing treatment, care and supervision.
The parties settled after suit but prior to trial for a confidential amount
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Abramson, Brown & Dugan
1819 Elm Street
Manchester
New Hampshire 03104-2910
Phone: (866) 938-3321
Fax: (603) 666-4227