A family was recently awarded $8.4 million in a birth injury lawsuit. The family claimed that due to a delayed birth, their child was born with cerebral palsy. While this suit was filed in another state, any family in Ohio who has a child that suffered a birth injury due to the apparent negligent actions of a third party may consider taking similar legal action.
According to the suit, as the mother was in the delivery room, the fetus began to show signs of fetal intolerance, which means that the baby was not getting a sufficient amount of oxygen. The nurses purportedly gave the mother an oxygen mask as she attempted to deliver the baby boy. When he was delivered, he was given an oxygen tube. However, the tube was not inserted until eight minutes after he was born.
The main group of specialists designated to work on resuscitation was supposedly busy with another patient’s Cesarian section at the time of the boy’s birth. The back up team was reportedly never called. The family named the hospital as well as the neonatal clinic as defendants in the suit, but the jury found the hospital to be 100 percent responsible for the boy’s injury. The family was awarded $8,455,597 in total.
The boy will never be able to walk or talk because of the cerebral palsy. The family has stated that all of the money will go into a trust in order to pay for his medical care for the rest of his life. Even though a birth injury suit will not heal a child, if anyone in Ohio has suffered similar injuries due to the negligence of another party, that family could also file a civil suit in an attempt to receive monetary compensation for the damages sustained.
Source: gainesvilletimes.com, “Hospital must pay $8.4 million after boy’s injury at birth“, Nick Watson, Oct. 22, 2014