Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

All parents want to have a healthy baby, but sometimes it is simply out of their control. Statistics show that out of every 1,000 infants born in the United States, between 6 to 8 of them will be born with some type of birth injury. Birth injuries can have a lasting effect on the infant as well as the infant’s parents and family members.

What Is a Birth Injury?

Birth injuries commonly arise due to physical pressure during the birthing process. This typically happens in or around the birth canal. Sometimes, an infant will suffer injuries that simply heal themselves and resolve without the need for any medical treatment or future procedures. Others are not as lucky.

A federal court jury recently handed down one of the largest verdicts in Ohio history in a medical malpractice case. The $14.5 million verdict was awarded to Nicole Welker and Justin Brinkley against Clearfield Hospital and Dr. Thomas A. Carnevale. Evidence was introduced at trial to show that the doctor, who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, improperly administered Pitocin to the mother to augment her labor while she was giving birth to her son, Justinian.

Pitocin is a natural hormone that causes the uterus to contract, thus inducing labor. It is often administered by doctors. Side effects of Pitocin are relatively mild for the mother but can be fatal for the fetus. Unfortunately, when Welker was administered Pitocin, the drug caused her contractions to increase in frequency and intensity. As a result of these increased contractions, Justinian’s oxygen was cut off. Tragically, Justinian was born with cerebral palsy and catastrophic cognitive disabilities.

Following the two-week trial, the jury deliberated on a number of key facts, including evidence showing that the doctor and the hospital had knowledge that the fetus was showing signs of distress during labor but took no actions to alleviate the problem. Ultimately, the jury assessed 60% liability for this incident against the doctor and the remaining 40% against the hospital.

When people generally think of frivolous lawsuits, their first reference is to a hot cup of coffee at McDonalds.  Although the injured woman sustained severe third-degree burns, that case about a hot cup of coffee has been used as a vehicle to try and limit legitimate claims of neglect.  There is a recent example of a birth injury case that illustrates just how distorted our national conversation has become on lawsuits.

Within this past year, a Chicago family settled a birth injury case for the staggering sum of fifty three million dollars ($53,000,000) after twelve years of litigation.  In this Chicago lawsuit, medical staff at the University of Chicago ignored the child’s mother for hours despite the fact that her child was in severe fetal distress, which meant she needed an emergency c-section.  As a result of the staff’s failure, the child was born with severe brain damage.  Even twelve years later, the child is unable to walk or speak and will suffer from neurological injuries for the rest of his life.  The interesting question is what would have happened had this incident occurred in Tennessee?

In Tennessee, the legislature has tried to turn birth injury cases essentially into a “hot cup of coffee.” In Tennessee, the law has been changed to limit non-economic damages to seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000), except in certain rare circumstances.  This limits the amount a person is entitled to recover for their pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish in personal injury and medical malpractice cases.  The law does not affect how much a person can recover for their economic losses.  These economic losses would include, but are not limited to, past lost earning capacity, past medical bills, future medical bills, or future lost earning capacity.  This limitation applies to someone spilling hot coffee on themselves or a woman in desperate need of a c-section and who ends up with a child with severe brain damage.