$23.5 Million Jury Verdict in Late Cesarean Section, Negligent Credentialing

At 39 weeks gestation, Luhe Feng experienced painful contractions and blood-tinged discharge. She was admitted to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center where an electronic fetal monitor showed positive fetal movement. Approximately 45 minutes after her arrival, a nurse assessed minimal variability, late decelerations and absent fetal heart rate accelerations. The presence of meconium also was noted when Feng’s membranes were artificially ruptured. Meconium is a newborn infant’s earliest stool, often caused by stress.

Despite the continuation of late decelerations, the treating obstetrician Dr. Yuhang Shek, told the nurse to anticipate a vaginal delivery. Another doctor later called Dr. Shek, who had left the hospital, and told him that Feng might be experiencing a placental abruption. Dr. Shek disagreed, and the other doctor consulted the department chair, who agreed that cesarean delivery was warranted.

Feng’s son, Dylan Gong, was born approximately 16 minutes later. His Apgar scores were one at one minute and four at five minutes. He required resuscitation and was transferred to a children’s hospital, where he was diagnosed as having suffered hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Dylan, now age 9, suffers from cerebral palsy, developmental delays and other deficits.

Dylan Gong, through a representative, his mother and father, sued the hospital, alleging medical negligence and negligent credentialing.

The Gong/Feng family claimed that the non-reassuring signs that occurred during labor warranted a change of plans, including intrauterine resuscitation measures, abandonment of the vaginal delivery and a timely cesarean section.

The Gong/Feng family also alleged that the hospital had negligently credentialed Dr. Shek, who had not met the hospital’s requirement that physicians be board-certified to become staff members and be granted hospital privileges. The hospital had granted privileges to Dr. Shek because he spoke Mandarin, the plaintiffs contended, claiming this constituted a breach of the standard of care.

At a Cook County jury trial, the jury signed the verdict in favor of the Gong/Feng family in the amount of $23.5 million.

The attorneys successfully handling this tragic case were attorneys Matthew Patterson and Ryan Timoney, both of Chicago, Ill.

Gong v. Mercy Hosp. & Med. Ctr., No. 2018 L 013154 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Cook County).

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling birth trauma injury lawsuits, birth injury cases, labor and delivery negligence lawsuits, wrongful death lawsuits, and medical malpractice 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 50 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Burr Ridge, Naperville, Carol Stream, Bensenville, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Lake Zurich, Highland Park, Calumet City, Chicago (Marquette Park, Pullman, Morgan Park, Beverly, Merrionette Park, Gage Park, Bronzeville, Douglas, West Town, Logan Square, Lakeview, Lincoln Square), Franklin Park, Schiller Park, and Northlake, Ill.

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