$4.5 Million Settlement Brain Injured Infant, Late Cesarean Section

At the end of her pregnancy, Ms. Doe experienced bleeding and pain. She went to the triage unit of Grove Hospital where she was seen by a midwife and first-year resident.

Ms. Doe was attached to a fetal monitor system, which showed decreased variability and some deceleration.

Although allegedly called, Ms. Doe’s treating obstetrician did not initially come to the hospital. An hour later, a nurse summoned the physician who arrived at the hospital more than two hours after Ms. Doe first presented to the hospital.

Ms. Doe’s daughter was delivered by cesarean section one hour later in a depressed condition. The baby was diagnosed as having suffered hypoxic-ischemic brain damage, which resulted in cerebral palsy and developmental delays. The baby is now 2 1/2 years old and requires 24-hour care.

The baby, Ms. Doe and the child’s father filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and the obstetrician. The lawsuit alleged delayed delivery by cesarean section.

The Doe family alleged that the triage staff chose not to identify signs of a placental abruption and did not tell the obstetrician-gynecologist about the fetal monitoring abnormalities.

The defendant argued that the baby had suffered injury when Ms. Doe arrived at the hospital. By this brief summary, the defense seems to have raised one of the more typical, but disputable, explanations for a significant brain injury to a newborn.

Before trial, the parties settled for $4.5 million.

The attorneys successfully handling this tragic lawsuit were Richard L. Groffsky and Matthew G. Curtis.

Doe v. Roe Hospital, Confidential Docket.

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling birth trauma injury lawsuits, cerebral palsy injury cases, birth trauma brain damage lawsuits and cerebral palsy 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 Schiller Park, Lincolnshire, Des Plaines, Naperville, St. Charles, Elgin, Buffalo Grove, Oak Lawn, Wauconda, Libertyville, Lake Forest, Chicago Heights, Mokena, New Lenox, Lemont, Bolingbrook, Chicago (West Roseland, Pullman, Altgeld Gardens, Hegewisch, East Side, South Shore, Calumet Heights, Bronzeville, Chinatown, Little Italy, West Town, Austin, Jefferson Park, West Ridge, Andersonville, Edgewater Beach, Hollywood Park, Sauganash), Rosemont, Niles, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Wheeling and Vernon Hills, Ill.

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