Towanna Neal delivered her daughter prematurely at Prisma Health Richland Hospital. The baby was transferred to the facility’s ICU, where she was fed intravenously.
The child developed an infection at the IV site, which required surgical grafting on her hand. The child later developed a hernia at the graft incision site, which also required surgery.
Although the child recovered, she will require future surgeries to treat her scar tissue.
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A federal district court judge has ruled that the two-year statute of limitations for Dominique Woodson’s medical malpractice claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) started running on Dec. 7, 2013. Her son, P.W., was born with a left arm that “sagged down to his side.”
According to Woodson, the allegedly negligent doctor, Keith Ramsey M.D., told P.W. “may get better” and that he “may grow into it.”
On appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from an order that granted the government’s request for summary judgment, Woodson argued the discovery date was May 30, 2014, when she hired an attorney. If so, her FTCA notice of claim, dated Feb. 19, 2016, was on time. However, the 7th Circuit affirmed the dismissal with a dissent.
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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.
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In 2017, after Doe’s birth at King’s County Hospital Center, the baby was admitted to the facility’s NICU for glucose monitoring.
Doe had an IV placed in her left foot and suffered an infiltration that resulted in blistering, swelling, necrosis and permanent scarring. Doe’s father, on her behalf, sued the New York Health and Hospital Corp., alleging that the hospital was negligent for choosing not to properly monitor the IV.
Before trial, the parties settled for $225,000.
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Clara Roman was born prematurely. Several months after her delivery, she was admitted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center to undergo repair of an inguinal hernia.
A week after the surgery, Clara’s parents returned her to the hospital for treatment of a recurrent bulge. The anesthesiologist, Dr. William Rahal, intubated Clara in preparation for emergency surgery. That surgery was later canceled.
While still under the anesthesiologist’s care, Clara suffered oxygen deprivation, which resulted in a severe brain injury.
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A Washington State Appellate Court held that a trial court had not abused its discretion in allowing a juror with a connection to the defendant doctor to serve on a jury in a medical malpractice case.
In this case, a child and his parents sued the obstetrician, Dr. Kevin Harrington, alleging his negligence during the child’s delivery, which led to his brachial plexus nerve injury.
The family of the child sought to exclude various prospective jurors for cause, claiming they had a child delivered by the defendant physician, including Juror 25. Although the court excused several of the jurors, Juror 25 ultimately served in a jury, which returned a verdict for the defendant physician. The family of the child appealed from this verdict.
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When Yong Juan Zhao gave birth to her son “S.,” the baby suffered an avoidable brachial plexus injury, which severely and permanently impaired the function of his right arm. During her pregnancy and S.’s birth, Zhao was attended by an obstetrician employed by a federally supported grant clinic in southern Illinois; the doctor was considered an employee of the U.S. Public Health Service under 42 U.S.C. 233(g).
Zhao sued for medical malpractice under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The court found that the obstetrician had been negligent and signed a judgment awarding Zhao, on behalf of S., $2.6 million in lost earnings and $5.5 million in noneconomic damages.
S. was 5 years old at the time of the trial.
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Ms. Doe was pregnant with twins; they shared a placenta but had their own amniotic sacs. During her pregnancy, one of the twins, Twin B, had an abnormal velamentous cord insertion and exhibited persistent absent end-diastolic flow, which indicated underlying fetal vascular stress. Velamentous cord insertion is a complication of pregnancy in which the umbilical cord is inserted in the fetal membranes. In a normal pregnancy, the umbilical cord inserts into the middle of the placenta and is surrounded by the amniotic sac.
At 24 weeks, a Doppler ultrasound revealed reverse end-diastolic flow (REDF) in Twin B’s umbilical artery. Reversal of the umbilical artery end-diastolic flow or velocity can be an ominous sign when detected after 16 weeks of pregnancy. In extreme situations, such as severe intrauterine growth restriction, the arterial blood flow can reverse directions at the end of diastole. This is referred to as a reversed end-diastolic flow.
When this condition was recognized, Ms. Doe’s treating maternal-fetal medicine specialist did not hospitalize her but continued seeing her every week until 27 weeks gestation. Two weeks later, Twin B died.
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After Mary Hunt was diagnosed as having possible preeclampsia, she was admitted to a hospital for induction of labor. Her treating physician ordered Pitocin and transferred her to an on-call obstetrician, Dr. Larry Clark.
Dr. Clark delivered Mary’s son vaginally using forceps. As a result of the difficult delivery combined with the forceful use of forceps, the baby suffered abrasions to his head, a cephalohematoma, and bleeding within the brain.
The child is now 3 years old and suffers from right-sided hemiplegia, developmental and speech delays as well as vision problems.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has affirmed a federal court’s exclusion of evidence regarding the defendant physician’s general reputation on internet websites.
In this case, Sheena Dorman, Dillon Ming and their minor child sued obstetrician Dr. Richard G. Welch and his medical practice, Annapolis OB-Gyn Associates P.A., alleging that the defendant physician’s negligence in applying lateral force during the child’s birth led to the development of Erb’s palsy.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. The plaintiffs appealed, challenging several of the trial court’s evidentiary rulings.
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