$2,750,000 Settlement for Failure to Perform a Timely Caesarean Section

The firm secured a settlement with a present value of $2.75 million on behalf of an infant with spastic quadriparesis following a hypoxic ischemic brain injury at the time of her birth. The infant’s mother was admitted to a local hospital with irregular contractions and spontaneous rupture of membranes for a vaginal birth after C-Section (VBAC). After approximately 15+ hours of labor, the obstetrician decided to perform a repeat C-Section because of a lack of progress in the labor. The Plaintiffs did not claim that the trial of VBAC labor was contraindicated. Rather, the plaintiffs contended that the fetal monitoring strips were indicative of fetal distress, requiring the earlier performance of an emergency C-Section. The infant mother’s uterus ruptured along the previous C-Section incision and the infant’s body extruded outside the uterus. The child was immediately transferred to another area hospital with diagnoses of asphyxia, anoxic seizure disorder and respiratory failure. The claim had been previously rejected by other plaintiffs’ counsel.