Pennsylvania Family Wins Millions for Birth Injury Settlement
Posted on Nov 23, 2008 3:00pm PST
This past week, a jury in Lackawanna County awarded a Pennsylvania family a $20.5 million settlement for their birth injury lawsuit. The family filed the birth injury lawsuit because they claim that their son suffered from lasting medical conditions that stemmed from mistakes that were made by medical professionals during his birth.
The lawsuit claims that the day the child was born, the mother contacted her physician (not her primary obstetrician) because she believed there was something wrong with her unborn child. The doctor told the mother to seek treatment from a medical center. The mother went to the medical center where she was hooked up to a fetal monitoring system. There, she was informed by nurses that her baby was in distress. The nurses called the obstetrician who has told the mother to go to the medical center, but he did not show up until two hours later.
During the ordeal, the baby received little oxygen. The situation became worse after the doctor decided to attempt to induce labor. The boy was delivered by cesarean section, about 4 hours later, and he had suffered irreparable physical and mental damage.
Later, the child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (a neurological disorder that impacts a person's motor skills). Now, as a 7 year old boy, he has no use of his hands, is almost completely blind and is also mentally retarded. The boy, Cody, functions at the level of a 6-9 moth old and will need round the clock care for the rest of his life.
After deliberating for 4 hours, the jury decided to assign 60% of the negligence to the physician and 40% of the negligence to the hospital. The parents are expected to receive $2 million in health care expenses. Cody was awarded $18.5 million, which he will receive once her turns 18 years of age. He was awarded the settlement for lost earning capacity, pain and suffering and his medical costs.
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