Sommers Schwartz attorneys Richard Groffsky and Jay Yasso secured a $3,925,000 settlement in a birth injury lawsuit on behalf of the parents of a newborn boy who suffered permanent neurological injuries. The suit claimed that the obstetric care team failed to respond to deteriorating fetal heart rate monitoring and delayed an emergency cesarean section.

On July 11, 2019, the mother presented to the hospital at nearly 40 weeks of gestation after her membranes ruptured spontaneously and with a documented history of gestational diabetes. Early electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) showed a fetal heart rate baseline in the normal range with moderate variability. After receiving an epidural, however, she began experiencing low blood pressure and fetal heart rate decelerations, and was given IV fluids and supplemental oxygen.

Over the following hours, monitoring data continued to worsen. The mother developed a fever exceeding 103°F, consistent with chorioamnionitis (an infection of the amniotic membranes), for which her physician ordered antibiotics. Throughout this period, the fetal heart rate baseline climbed steadily into the 170s and then to 180, accompanied by worsening decelerations and increasingly diminished variability, recognized warning signs of fetal distress.

Despite the deteriorating EFM tracings, the delivering physician — who had been monitoring the patient remotely rather than at bedside — ordered Pitocin, a drug used to intensify and accelerate contractions, in an attempt to augment labor. According to the plaintiff’s expert, Pitocin was contraindicated given the worsening fetal status, as it can increase oxygen deprivation in a distressed fetus. The physician did not call for a cesarean section until 8:50 p.m., nearly nine hours after the mother’s arrival. When the surgery was performed, the umbilical cord was found wrapped around the baby’s body, the infant was meconium-stained, and the amniotic fluid smelled foul — again, all signs of significant fetal distress.

The baby was born with no heartbeat and no respiratory effort. His Apgar scores (a measure of newborn health assessed at 1, 5, and 10 minutes of life) were 0 at 1 minute, 0 at 5 minutes, and 3 at 10 minutes, indicating critical distress. Within hours of birth, he was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at a regional hospital for hypothermia therapy, a treatment used to limit brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation. Testing revealed severe metabolic and respiratory acidosis. By 12 hours of life, the infant was exhibiting seizures and was started on phenobarbital. He was subsequently transferred to a children’s hospital, where he was treated until discharge on July 25, 2019.

As a result of the care team’s failures, the child sustained permanent injuries, including gross motor developmental delays caused by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (brain damage resulting from oxygen and blood flow deprivation around the time of birth) as well as sensorineural bilateral hearing loss. He has required ongoing occupational, physical, and speech therapy.

The settlement recovery will help pay for the child’s past and future medical expenses, his care needs and lost wages after reaching adulthood, and his past, present, and future physical and mental pain and suffering.