$2.75 Million Settlement in Negligent Labor and Delivery, Inadequate Staffing

Ms. Doe presented in active labor on an evening to Providence Regional Medical Center’s Pavilion for Women and Children. Ms. Doe, whose full-term baby was healthy at the time of her admission, was administered Pitocin and remained in labor throughout the night.

The next morning at around 5 a.m., significant signs of fetal distress occurred, including prolonged decelerations. Nurses informed the on-duty obstetrician, who was in surgery with another patient. The doctor ordered an operating room be opened for Ms. Doe.

Approximately three hours later, Ms. Doe’s daughter was delivered by cesarean section; the procedure was performed by a different obstetrician. The baby was diagnosed as having hypoxic-ischemic brain damage and — tragically — died just nine days later. The baby was survived by Ms. Doe, the baby’s mother, and her husband.

Ms. Doe and her husband, on behalf of the child’s estate, sued Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett Clinic, the provider group that employed Ms. Doe’s attending physicians, and two other physicians, alleging inadequate staffing and physician coverage, choosing not to obtain informed consent, failure of attending nurses to “go up the chain of command,” and delayed cesarean section.

The Doe family maintained that one obstetrician had been left alone to care for patients during the overnight shift when two other doctors were called away to the main hospital and that this caused a mismanaged and delayed delivery.

The defendants argued that there was no need for an urgent cesarean section because the baby “probably had problems with her brain before arriving at the hospital.”

Before trial, the parties settled this case for $2.75 million.

The attorneys handling this case for the Doe family were Elizabeth M. Quick, Matthew D. Quick, and Joshua Rosen.

Doe v. Providence Regional Medical Center-Everett, No. 19-2-12655-8 SEA (Wash. Super. Ct. King County, April 6, 2021).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling birth trauma injury lawsuits, traumatic brain injury cases, labor and delivery negligence lawsuits, wrongful death cases, cerebral palsy injury cases and medical negligence cases for individuals, families and loved ones who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 45 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Bolingbrook, Waukegan, Romeoville, Elgin, Aurora, St. Charles, Winnetka, Glencoe, Glenview, Zion, Lake Zurich, Mundelein, Chicago (Bucktown, Ukrainian Village, Roscoe Village, Rogers Park, Little Village, Back of the Yards, Pilsen, South Shore, Bronzeville, Uptown), Highwood, Olympia Fields, Blue Island and South Holland, Illinois.

Robert D. Kreisman has been an active member of the Illinois and Missouri bars since 1976.