Families who have children that suffer birth injuries and birth defects caused by birth injuries often have huge medical bills and the expense of providing round the clock professional care for their child. While all doctors try to make the best decisions for their patients during the urgent time of labor and delivery, mistakes can happen. Sometimes those decisions don’t work out as intended and the consequences are devastating for the newborn baby, the family and the doctor as well.
One such case occurred in Ohio, the doctor (defendant) made decisions during the birth that resulted in the baby being born with cerebral palsy. The plaintiff alleges that the physician ignored information from a fetal heart monitor that clearly indicated that the mother should have received a cesarean section.
The family claimed that because the doctor did not perform a cesarean section the baby did not receive enough oxygen at birth which caused her to develop cerebral palsy. Because this child who is now 10 years old could reasonably be expected to live into her 80’s and requires constant care, being unable to eat, drink or even sit up without assistance her family will incur millions of dollars in expenses.
When this case went to court the jury found the physician negligent to the tune of almost $14million. All of this, the suffering of this family, the affected life of a child and the future of a doctor could all have been changed by making the decision to perform a cesarean section.
