Articles Posted in Brain Injury

by

Zofran is an anti-nausea drug.  It has been linked to serious birth defects when used during pregnancy.  In 2015, a federal panel created the special multidistrict litigation docket for victims who had been using the Zofran drug made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The defendant, GSK, filed a motion in this federal district court claiming that the lawsuit was pre-empted by federal law under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Wyeth v. Levine.  In that case, it was held that federal regulatory clearance of a medication does not shield the manufacturer from liability under state law.  The U.S. District Court in the Massachusetts district, however, denied the motion stating that the judge was “loath to dismiss” the claims without giving families a chance to develop the facts of their respective cases through discovery.

Zofran was first approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 1991.  It is intended to control extreme cases of nausea such as with cancer medications or following an invasive surgery.  It has not been approved for use during a pregnancy.  However, the drug Zofran has been prescribed by physicians to expectant mothers to lessen the symptoms of morning sickness.

Continue reading

by

During Tristan Hamilton’s delivery, his mother was given Pitocin to induce labor. The treating obstetrician instructed attending nurses to give no more than 20 milli-units of Pitocin to allow only four contractions every ten minutes. The nurses did not follow those instructions.

Because of the excessive amount of Pitocin given (hyperstimulation) and numbing effect of the epidural, Tristan’s mother was unable to push, prompting the obstetrician to attempt a forceps delivery. The baby then became stuck in the birth canal and the physician completed the delivery using a vacuum extractor.

At birth, Tristan had Apgar scores that were one at one minute and three at five minutes. He suffered brain damage in the delayed delivery. He is now 8 years old and has severe motor dysfunction and is unable to walk or talk.

Continue reading

by

On Sept. 5, 2015, Jaclyn Pena-Prather arrived at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ill., for an elective induction of labor. She was more than 41 weeks’ pregnant. She was a patient of Dr. Carol Korzen, who practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Elgin.

After admission, an external monitor was applied, and the fetus was continuously monitored throughout labor. At 2:15 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2015, she received an epidural for pain. At 4:45 a.m., a nurse contacted Dr. Korzen to update her on the patient’s progress. Dr. Korzen was present at 7:20 a.m. Pena-Prather was coached to begin pushing. At 8:21 a.m., the baby, Gianna, was delivered vaginally, weighing 6 lbs., 4 oz.

However, Gianna’s Apgar scores were very low. One minute after birth, Gianna’s score was zero. At 5 minutes, her score was 1. At ten minutes, her score was 3. The umbilical cord was described as “thin and shoe-string-like,” and was coiled seven times. Gianna was diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and metabolic acidosis.

Continue reading

by

H.D. was admitted to a hospital in labor. The nurses and midwife observed H.D. throughout the night without any notable changes. However, early the next morning, the fetal monitor showed non-reassuring signs of the unborn child. No one consulted an obstetrician or warned a doctor about the non-reassuring signs.

About six hours later, H.D. delivered her son; he was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times. The hospital’s resuscitation team was attending to another patient, which resulted in an 8-minute delay in having the child intubated.

As a consequence, the baby suffered severe brain damage. He is now 6 years old and has cerebral palsy, developmental delays and a seizure disorder.

Continue reading

by

The baby, Zoey Stavrou, was delivered by Cesarean section at Edward Hospital in DuPage County, Ill., at 12:25 a.m. on May 14, 2006. She had Apgar scores at 0 at 1, 5 and 10 minutes. At the time of the delivery, a 9-centimeter umbilical cord hematoma was discovered, which had occurred as a result of a ruptured umbilical vein.

Zoey is now 8 years old and has severe cerebral palsy. She is non-verbal and has no functional mobility. She has the cognitive level of a 6-9 month infant and is dependent for all activities of daily living.

Zoey’s family contended that the defendant delivering physician and labor and delivery nurses chose not to properly interpret and act upon non-reassuring fetal monitor strips throughout the evening of May 13. They also contended that the emergency C-section should have been ordered around 9 p.m., but the defendant obstetrician, Dr. Chen, negligently waited until midnight to order the C-section. It was also claimed that Dr. Chen did not perform the incision for the C-section until 12:19 a.m. and the child would have been born neurologically intact if she had been delivered before 12:08 a.m.

Continue reading

by

Kaleb Avalos-Lanteros was born with what amounted to a fractured skull. The injury caused brain damage and was first recognized while Kaleb was in the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Chicago.

The cause of Kaleb’s skull fracture was not acknowledged by anyone but was alleged to have happened when Kaleb was being cared for in the NICU. No one took responsibility, so Kaleb’s parents relied on the claim of res ipsa loquitur in suing lots of defendants, which included the hospital, EPC Healthcare Staffing and another group of companies affiliated with Sodexo Inc.

The lawsuit and its complaint included claims for what the lawyers called “specific negligence” in addition to the claim of res ipsa loquitur, which literally means, in Latin, the thing speaks for itself. In other words, the law allows this theory to be applied for a claim in which the event alleged could not have happened in the absence of negligence. That presumption is rebuttable and can be defeated, but would be a question of fact to be decided by a jury as the finder of facts.

Continue reading