Cerebral Palsy Law Blog : Cerebral Palsy Lawyer & Attorney : Burke & Eisner Law Firm : Medical Malpractice Lawyers & Attorneys

A settlement agreement was reached in a cerebral palsy lawsuit right as the jury was deliberating a verdict after an intense four-week trial. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but medical attorneys for the young boy at the center of the case and his family said that the dispute has been “resolved.”
 

The case involved the birth of Leondo Stanziano, who was born on December 11, 2000 at an Ohio hospital. His mother, Renetha, was considered a high risk VBAC patient. VBAC means vaginal birth after Caesarian, and women who fall into this category are at risk for a ruptured uterus.
 

According to the lawsuit filed by the family, the hospital staff failed to properly monitor Renetha’s labor and caused her uterus to rupture by giving her too much Pitocin (a drug used to induce labor). The complaint stated that the baby went without oxygen for about 18 to 20 minutes after the uterine rupture and this caused him to suffer severe brain damage and cerebral palsy.
 

As a result of his injuries, the boy requires a feeding tube and round-the-clock care, is unable to speak, and will never be able to work. The settlement money will help to provide for his care.

 

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Last week, a Frederick County jury found two doctors responsible for Ryan Dineen’s cerebral palsy and awarded the boy and his mother, Suzette Dineen, $4 million in damages. The award is thought to be the highest awarded for medical malpractice in the county.
 

According to the cerebral palsy lawsuit, Ryan’s mother had arrived at the hospital shortly after 5:00 a.m. on May 7, 2000 with severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. She was eight months pregnant.
 

Hospital protocol is that women beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy who exhibit such symptoms be monitored in the labor and delivery suite. But Suzette Dineen was instead monitored by nurses in the emergency room for three hours before a physician saw her.
 

The physician had been called in because the nurse was unable to locate the baby’s heartbeat, which the obstetrician determined was low and ordered an emergency caesarean section. By this time, the complaint said it was about 8:20 a.m. and Ryan was born approximately 15 minutes later.
 

His heart was not beating, he was not breathing and he needed to be resuscitated. Consequently, Ryan suffered brain damage resulting in injuries that will lifelong care.
 

"In the right case, with the right set of facts, the Frederick County jury responded like anyone would respond. I think that tells us something: that they're concerned about accountability," the medical attorney for Ryan and his mother said.
 

Cases such as Ryan are extremely unfortunate, and there is no amount of money that can make up for what is lost. But it is possible to hold negligent doctors accountable, and hopefully this helps to save others from suffering similar tragedies.

 

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A $6.5 million settlement was recently reached in Aurora, Illinois regarding the case of a seven-year-old boy who now has cerebral palsy due to a supposed accident at a local hospital. The incident occurred at the Provena Mercy Medical Center where the boy endured a brain injury that has now altered his life.

Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit Details

Roberto Morales, Jr. is now living with the cerebral palsy he was born with, at the fault of the medical facility and its staff, according to the suit. Attorneys for Morales claim that the attending obstetrician while the boy’s mother was in labor, along with the delivery nurse, failed to properly respond to the lowering of his heart rate when he was born. Morales’ oxygen flow was reportedly cut off as well, which the suit states was the cause of the medication known as Pitocin.

The settlement given to the boy and his family was reached last week for the negligence that occurred in April 7, 2001.  Not only was Morales born with cerebral palsy as the result of this horrific mistake, but he also has metabolic acidosis and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

According to reports, the settlement will go towards paying for boy’s continued health care and medical expenses. It also hopes to compensate for his loss of enjoyment of life and the emotional distress the family has suffered.  

 

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In May 2002, Dan and Lori Perseke of Minnesota went to the Ortonville Hospital for the birth of their son, Wyatt.  Unfortunately, during and immediately following his birth, something went tragically wrong.  The Persekes allege that due to negligence by Dr. Allan Ross, his staff from his Northside Medical Clinic and the nurses at Ortonville hospital, Wyatt now suffers from cerebral palsy and permanent brain damage.

The lawsuit, which originally resulted in a hung jury, was recently retried in a new venue and this time the family was successful.  

During the trial, the jury heard testimony from a dozen doctors, split equally for the prosecution and the defense.  Dr. Ross, the nurses involved and the Persekes also took the stand to give testimony of the days tragic events.

In the end, the jury ruled that there was negligence, and attributed 70 percent to Dr. Ross and the remaining 30 percent to the hospital nurses.  The jury awarded $9,566,500 in damages, most of which will be placed in a trust for Wyatt’s future expenses.  The balance will go directly to the Persekes to cover Wyatt’s medical bills and other expenses until he turns 18.

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One of Pennsylvania’s largest medical malpractice verdicts in recent years was handed down on Monday in a cerebral palsy lawsuit. The jury awarded $20.5 million to a 7-year-old boy and his parents for injuries the boy suffered at birth.

Cody’s Ordeal

Cody White was born on June 30, 2001 by Caesarean section. His mother, Laura, called her physician that day to express concern about her unborn baby and she was told to go to Community Medical Center.

When she arrived, a fetal monitor showed signs of distress. The doctor was called but did not arrive until two hours later. During that time, Cody was receiving inadequate oxygen and consequently suffered damage to his brain.

Cody now suffers from cerebral palsy, mental retardation and blindness. He cannot walk or talk and will require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.

Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit

In 2003, Cody’s parents filed a lawsuit against the delivery doctor and the medical center where he was born.  The trial lasted two weeks and jurors deliberated for about four hours before finding the doctor 60 percent negligent and the hospital 40 percent negligent.

The majority of the $20.5 million award will go toward Cody’s care. The money will also compensate him for his lost earning capacity as well as his pain and suffering.

Posted as Part of our Set of Medical Malpractice Law Blogs

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The family of 5-year-old Miriam Tavares was awarded $4.25 million by a jury in Washington for injuries the girl suffered during her delivery at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center. Miriam sustained severe brain damage, and now has cerebral palsy. She cannot walk, talk, eat on her own and will require a lifetime of care.

 

Deprived of Oxygen

 

For at least 20 minutes before her birth, Miriam was deprived of crucial oxygen, according the family’s medical malpractice claim. Miriam’s mother, Sharla Tavares, went into labor a day before a scheduled C-section. She had a history of complications and was considered a high risk case.

 

Tavares checked into the hospital at 8:25 p.m., and signs of fetal distress were apparent 20 minutes later. At 9:00 p.m., Miriam’s heart rate had dropped to a dangerously low level. The nurses finally notified the obstetrician, who arrived at 9:18 to perform an emergency C-section.

 

Miriam was born at 9:24 p.m. and required resuscitation.

 

"She's a real fighter and is deeply loved by her parents, but this was a preventable injury," the family’s lawyer said.

 

Hospital Found Negligent

 

The jury found guilty of negligence and awarded Miriam and her family $2.4 million to cover future medical costs, $350,000 for previous medical costs, and $1.4 million in general damages

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A hospital in Worcestershire, England, has admitted that medical mistakes led to the development of quadriplegic cerebral palsy in Holly Nixon. A medical negligence specialist and cerebral palsy lawyer for the family said Holly will likely require 24-hour care for the rest of her life.

Holly’s Ordeal

Holly was born by way of C-section in July 2003. At about 38 weeks’ gestation, Holly’s mother, Emma, began noticing problems. An exam revealed that Emma was experiencing raised blood pressure, but she was not admitted to the hospital.

The next day, the baby stopped moving and it was determined that Emma’s blood pressure had increased even more. Still, she was not admitted to the hospital. On the following day, Emma had a scan that showed fetal distress. The distress was not recognized until a second scan was performed later that day.

An emergency C-section was scheduled but delayed for several hours. During this time, Holly suffered irreparable brain damage due to oxygen deprivation. 

Preventable Medical Errors

“Holly is a wonderful little girl and she is loved very much by all who know her. However, by now she should be running around with her friends and starting music or dance classes,” Emma Nixon said. “We have been robbed of this and so many other opportunities that she should have had in life and it’s extremely difficult to come to terms with this, particularly as we now know it’s all down to basic mistakes made during her birth.”

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has agreed to start a fund for Holly’s care, but the total amount of compensation has yet to be determined.

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A $5.5 million settlement has been reached in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by a woman whose son suffered severe brain damage after prolonged oxygen deprivation at birth. The damage has left the boy, now 6, unable to perform basic functions like walking, sitting on his own, feeding and talking.

 

“Seeing how he struggles, seeing him in a wheelchair and not being able to hear him say ‘Mom’ in English or Spanish, it’s painful. We shouldn’t have been going through all of this,” said Eva Liberato, the boy’s mother.

 

According to Liberato’s lawsuit, the baby’s heart rate began to plummet after she was given medication to induce contractions. A family doctor tried unsuccessfully to deliver the baby with a vacuum retractor and forceps before an obstetrician was called to deliver the baby by C-section.

 

A jury found the family doctor liable for the boy’s birth injuries, but the hospital and obstetrician will also contribute to the settlement

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It would seem  to be true in the case of a young California boy whose troubled birth has left him with severe brain damage and cerebral palsy.  A Sierra View District Hospital  has agreed to a 4 million dollar settlement.  The obstetrician and nurse anesthetist have also agreed to a settlement but the terms of the settlement remain confidential.

Gabriela Enriquez  was admitted to Porterville Hospital on March 19th of 2006 to give birth to her first child, Jose Carrillo.  Bruce Fagel, Gabriela's attorney, said that the baby's monitor indicated that the baby was in distress over the  last several hours of labor but that those indications of distress were ignored by the nurses and obstetrician on duty.  He went on to say that by the time an emergency c-section was ordered the next morning significant brain damage had occurred from lack of oxygen.

According to Fagel, Jose has severe cerebral palsy and, while his doctors believe his intellectual development may be normal, his motor skills are lacking and he will never be able to walk or communicate normally.

Because the hospital district board is a public agency it was required to approve the terms of the settlement even  though the settlement was reached in private negotiation.  A judge also had to approve the settlement because the plaintiff is a minor.

Court records show the Enriquez/Carrillo suit against the hospital also named as defendants Dr. Jose R. Salas, a Porterville obstetrician; Janet Michelle Bailey, a registered nurse/anesthetist; and Dr. Philip Early, head of the hospital's anesthesiology department.

According to records of the Medical Board of California, Salas was placed on probation in 1999 for three years because of an accusation of "gross negligence" and "repeated negligent acts" stemming from a 1995 birth at Sierra View.

So, how does a 4 million dollar settlement become a 45 million dollar settlement?  It doesn't.  The settlement  is still a 4 million dollar settlement but the 4 million dollars will be placed in an annuity designed to provide a monthly income for the rest of Jose's life - to cover his medical needs, home care and therapy.  Over his lifetime that annuity is estimated to pay him about 45 million dollars.

 

 

 

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Louisiana legislation signed into law on July 15th provides clearer guidance for judges dealing with settlements for minors.

House Bill 133 amended the state's Civil Code of Procedures to state that "in approving any proposal by which money will be paid to the minor as the result of a judgment or settlement, the court may order that the money be paid under a structured settlement agreement which provides for periodic payments and is underwritten by a financially responsible entity that assumes responsibility for future payments."

State Representative Joseph Lopinto gives credit for the idea to Mike McCullough of the James Street Group.

"I used to see the parents go take the money and go to the bank and cash it," said McCullough, who is based in Lafayette, La. "I am trying to protect the minors that come into money from a lawsuit. The only recourse they have [otherwise] is when they turn 18 and can sue their parents."

Prior to passage of this bill, judges were only instructed to impose orders that were for the benefit of the minor such that funds were used, administered and conserved in the best interests of the minor.  The passage of this bill is meant to promote the use of structured funds but stops short of making it mandatory.

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In Connecticut the Justice Department has awarded $115,000  to a tenant because the landlord refused to allow the tenant to have an assistance dog in the home.

It  was claimed in the lawsuit that the tenant's daughter needed the dog to help with her cerebral palsy, depression and seizure disorder.  The lawsuit also claimed that Mahmoud M. Hussein, the landlord, refused to make any exception to his no-pets policy and refused to renew her lease and began eviction proceedings when she exercised her rights under the Fair Housing Act.

The landlord, Mahmoud M. Hussein, must pay compensation and attorney fees, attend fair housing training, implement a reasonable accommodation policy and comply with monitoring requirements.

 

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As reported in the Chicago Tribune an Aurora woman has settled her malpractice suit for fifteen million dollars.  Vanessa Jenkins had brought suit against the doctor, hospital and staff alleging that her son Cody suffered brain damage because, during her labor, the doctor used a vacuum device improperly thus causing brain damage.

Her attorneys said that her labor was uneventful until the doctor began to use the vacuum device.  Within a period of 50 minutes the device was used 18 times.  When Cody's fetal heart rate indicated that he was in distress, Cody was delivered by Caesarean section by another doctor.  By then the damage had been done and Cody was left disfigured, brain damaged and incapable of living independently.

The settlement was approved by Judge Kurt Klein in Dekalb County Circuit Court and her attorneys said this was the largest award ever reached in Dekalb County.

 

 

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Heather Grow's daughter, Cassie, was delivered by caesarian section but only after she had been stuck in the birth canal for over thirteen hours.  In 1997 Heather was told that she had a narrow pelvic arch and that became an issue about two weeks before delivery when her doctors realized that the baby was about nine pounds.

Cassie got stuck in the birth canal clearly being pushed through an opening where she couldn't fit.  Attorney Patrick P.J. Beirne described it as like trying to push a watermelon through an opening the size of an apple.   Not only was Cassie too big for the birth canal but medical workers continued to give Heather drugs to make the uterus contract.  She continued having contractions every couple minutes.  This continued for hours all the while squeezing the baby's head causing brain damage.

Attorney Mark Mueller said that the doctor had a responsibility to ensure that Heather had a safe delivery.

Cassie, now 11, is a spastic quadriplegic. That means she has limited use of her limbs.

She can walk short distances but needs a walker. She can see but because the part of her brain that processes vision was damaged, her brain can't properly interpret what her eyes see. She has problems using her hands, and she is mildly retarded, Mueller said.

"These are permanent injuries," Mueller said.

The vast majority of the settlement is for Cassie's future medical needs  and future loss of ability to perform ordinary activities.

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In 2004 William Duckworth was working as a civilian employee at Kadena Air Base in Japan.  His daughter Aubrey was born at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Okinawa in September of 2004.

Because her mother's uterus ruptured during birth Aubrey was not  receiving oxygen and, as a result, is severely disabled.  She must be fed through a tube implanted in her stomach, suffers from blindness and spastic cerebral palsy. 

Spastic Cerebral Palsy, the most common type, is a disorder in which certain muscles are stiff and weak.  The stiffness can occur mainly in the legs (diplegia), only in the arm and leg of the same side (hemiplegia) or in both arms and both legs (quadriplegia).  A wide-based, staggering, or "scissors" gait is characteristic of this type.  

According to Patrick Malone, the family attorney, the family brought a claim under the Military Claims Act alleging that a nurse midwife, Laura A. Bennett, was grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice for trying to manage a complex and high-risk delivery without calling in an obstetrician.

Last month, Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Wynn approved the settlement.  Most of the money will be set aside to pay for Aubrey's continuing medical and nursing care.  The Air Force is responsible for the settlement because it has “single service authority” over injury claims at all U.S. government facilities in Japan according to federal regulations.

We were involved in a case similar to this many years ago.  One of the interesting parts is that in these overseas' cases there is often no right to a jury trial, so the often the only way to resolve the military malpractice at all is to work up the case as best you can and settle.

 

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At least it appears to be in the northeast.  This just a blog post announcing a settlement.  Note how the post says that the plaintiff will receive $29 Million over the course of her life.  That is because the present value of the settlement may be $3 Million but that is used to purchase an annuity that will provide $29Million in payments for the rest of her life (or some set time).  I tis not clear exactly when payments will stop or exactly how it is structured.

[A] newborn, was born neurologically damaged at birth.  The child's mother came to the hospital complaining of not feeling the baby and bleeding.  Doctors at the hospital placed her on a monitor but failed to detect any abnormalities with the infant.  The child was born 12 days later and at birth could not breathe.  Tests were performed which revealed that the child had suffered a brain bleed while in utero. The child was transferred to New York Hospital for further treatment. Our client, now 7-years-old, cannot walk or talk and has to be fed through a tube. The child will receive $29 million from the settlement over the course of her life.

www.ronvil.com

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This from a video report of a $2.4 Million dollar settlement in a case in New York.  The child suffers severe brain damage and the settlement should go a ways to help the family.

Kelly Hunt-Force was born at corning hospital in 1998 with cerebral palsy. Her family says it's a result of nurses who neglected to monitor her mother. Kelly will never walk or talk because she has severe brain damage.

Source:  WENY.com Tweet this

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This from an article in Ireland.  A settlement in a birth injury case involving a failure to properly electronically monitor the labor as is progressed.  The result was severe cerebral palsy.

Details were not disclosed except that it was substantial and the full amount claimed.

In a statement read out in court by Mrs Swaine on the couple's behalf, she criticised the hospital for the way they were treated both during and after the birth.

She said during her labour, which was induced, she and her husband had waited so long for the arrival of their first child and what should have been a joyous occasion "soon turned into the most tragic of our lives."

She said that during her labour, she and her husband told a nurse they felt something was wrong and they were "basically ignored".

Christopher, who was born on July 21, 2002, with severe cerebral palsy, had to be resuscitated after birth and spent a month in intensive care where the parents had to learn to feed him through a tube.

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This one was approved by a judge to put an end to the 4 year old case.

Labor proceeded appropriately until several minutes after Radis started pushing and fetal monitor tracings indicated the baby was not tolerating labor.

Physicians and nurses attempted to expedite the delivery by using a vacuum extractor to bring the baby's head down farther, but the vacuum was removed after eight minutes because the doctor believed with one or two more pushes, the baby would be delivered, according to the release. But the baby, Joshua Radis, was not delivered until the fifteenth push, some 31 minutes later on May 16, and by that time, he was brain-damaged and now suffers cerebral palsy.

The brain damage is basically caused by a lack of oxygen during the labor.  When I first started looking at these cases several years ago, I was surprised at how often I would come across a case where the size of the baby was an issue given the size of the mother.  This case settled for $11.5 million.

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Out of the Boston Area this morning.

The family of a 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy has been awarded a multi-million dollar medical malpractice settlement.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Dustin Turner was born with cerebral palsy after a traumatic delivery at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

Dustin can smile and gurgle, but those are his only means of communication. He has severe cerebral palsy, which his parents blame on his lack of oxygen during labor and birth.

For the rest of the story please see TheBostonChannel.com

Source:  The Boston Channel via Yahoo

According to the Manchester Union Leader the amount of the settlement is $5 Million.

The parents of a severely brain-damaged New Hampshire boy will be awarded $5 million to pay for his long-term care, under a settlement of a lawsuit filed against the doctor and nurse who handled the boy's delivery at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

Michelle and Kendall Turner, of Bedford, N.H., sued Dr. Mitchell Zager and nurse Mary Doran after their son, Dustin, 5, was born on July 11, 2001, with severe neurological damage.

For the rest of that story Please see the UnionLeader.com

 

 

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