Richard Groffsky obtained a confidential $1,500,000 settlement in a medical malpractice lawsuit involving birth injuries due to the negligence of the defendant hospital’s obstetrical team.

According to the lawsuit, the mother was a poorly controlled diabetic whose pregnancy was at increased risk for potential fetal complications due to the adverse effect of her diabetes on the placenta and the fetus’s inability to adequately oxygenate during labor and delivery. On the day of delivery there were approximately 3-1/2 hours of consistent and persistent late decelerations, which went unappreciated and unaddressed. Based on the findings of the tracings, the plaintiff claimed that a caesarean section delivery should have taken place.  Instead, the labor was permitted to continue with repeated and eventually worsening fetal heart monitoring abnormalities for another 10 hours.

As a result of the malpractice, the child sustained permanent neurological damage that requires ongoing rehabilitative care and services.