Attorney: Dennis Donnelly
Settlement: $1,750,000.
Fall 2007

Blume Goldfaden Partner, Dennis M. Donnelly, settled this wrongful birth case involving a failure by radiologist to image the back of the fetal brain during a prenatal screening ultrasound in 1995. This deficiency in the ultrasound screening deprived the child’s mother of knowledge that her daughter would be born with severe hydrocephalus and spina bifida, which would cause severe brain damage and paralysis. Though there was some dispute whether imaging the back of the brain was a required view for 2nd trimester ultrasounds as of 1995, all experts agreed that such images would have shown the changes in the back of the brain caused by spina bifida. Partner Dennis Donnelly was also able to show that the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine had recognized that complete views of the fetal brain, including the posterior fossa or back section, should be done in all prenatal anatomical surveys during the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. In addition, that the defendant radiologist’s report told this mother and her obstetricians that he had imaged the brain represented that he had viewed all parts of the brain and found them normal. However, when the images were reviewed all sides agreed that they contained no images of the back of the brain.