A Chicago jury has awarded a Cook County record $53 million to a now-12-year-old who suffered a devastating brain injury at birth. The boy’s mother arrived to the hospital approximately 40 weeks in to her pregnancy complaining of decreased fetal movement. The lawsuit alleged that at that time, the hospital failed to, among other things, carefully monitor the mother and unborn child, perform a timely cesarean section, follow a chain of command, obtain accurate cord blood gases and recognize abnormal fetal heart rate patters that should have signaled to the doctors that the baby was in distress and suffering from hypoxia.
The hospital’s position at trial was that the mother’s treatment for an infection prior to the birth caused the child’s cerebral palsy and that the child had been born with normal oxygen levels. The child’s disability is so severe that he cannot bathe or eliminate on his own, cannot feed himself and cannot get up the stairs of their home. The tremendous verdict included $28.8 million for future caretaking expenses and $7.2 million for future medical expenses.
Our experienced Maryland medical malpractice lawyers here at STSW have decades of experience pursuing birth trauma and other types of cases. If you or a loved one were the victim of a suspected medical mistake, call us today for a free consultation at 410-385-2225.