$12.7 Million Verdict for Failure to Report Abnormal Ultrasound Results

Carol Forte obtained the highest verdict of her career on February 3, 1999 as a Middlesex County jury awarded $12,682,500 to the parents of a severely brain damaged boy whose twin died in utero.

The mother was a pre-natal patient at a New Brunswick Health Center when doctors there sent her to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center for an ultrasound, which clearly showed one twin was abnormally smaller than the other.

Ms. Forte explained to the jury that no one knew the mother was having twins because the results of the ultrasound were never reported to the clinic, nor did the clinic follow up to obtain the results from the hospital.

During the two-week trial in New Brunswick, Ms. Forte argued that the clinic was negligent in failing to obtain these results; the hospital was negligent for failing to send them; and that the brain damage could have been avoided. The now five-year-old boy is unable to walk or talk and requires constant care.