A Fort Lauderdale, Florida jury Friday awarded a family $35 million in a medical malpractice case alleging that Broward General Medical Center caused permanent brain damage to their child during his delivery. As a result of the malpractice, the child is profoundly mentally disabled, can’t walk, can’t engage in routine activities of daily living and requires a lifetime of care. A copy of the article regarding the case can be found here.
As I have repeatedly said before, birth trauma cases like this are some of the most difficult cases that Maryland medical malpractice attorneys pursue because they usually involve multiple expert witnesses, such as obstetricians, neonatologists, pediatric neurologists, placental pathologists, life care planners and economists. This makes them extremely time-consuming and expensive to pursue. Nevertheless, these cases are extremely important to pursue, so that compensation can be obtained for the parents and child, in order to provide the child with best medical and other care that the child can have, so as to maximize the child’s abilities and comfort. Nothing is more important.
While practicing the filed of medical malpractice in Baltimore, I have handled a number of these type of cases, and they almost always involve severe and permanent injuries. The parents usually don’t have enough money to provide the child with the medical and other care that the child needs, health insurance doesn’t give the child what it needed and government benefits are minimal to non-existent. When these cases are successful, they usually allow the family to give the child the medical and other care (like home care) that is needed.
Most Baltimore area hospitals have at one time have faced a medical malpractice case involving allegations of cerebral palsy or birth injury from a negligent delivery. These hospitals include Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins Bayview, University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland General Hospital, Harbor Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Franklin Square Hospital, Howard County General Hospital.