Tag Archives: Birth Defects
Michigan Family Awarded $130 Million For Daughter’s Brain Damage
A doctor’s negligence can cause unprecedented harm in the delivery of a child, and the harm can last a lifetime. A jury considered this timeframe in Michigan on Tuesday when they awarded the family of a brain-damaged girl what might be the largest medical malpractice verdict in Michigan History. The family of a 15-year old Markell VanSlembrouck, a quadriplegic girl resulting from a brain injury acquired at birth, was awarded $130 million in damages after a three-week trial where the family alleged negligence by the delivering doctor. Markell was larger than expected from gestational diabetes, but rather than perform a cesarean, Dr. Andrew Halperin from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak chose to induce vaginal delivery. The delivery resulted in a broken clavicle and brain damage. Quadriplegia followed, requiring round-the-clock care. The VanSlembrouck’s attorney says the award represents the cost of caring for Markell through 2077 and her lost wages, and…
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Posted in Birth Defects, Birth Trauma, Brain Damage Tagged Birth Defects, birth trauma lawyers, brain injuries Comments Off on Michigan Family Awarded $130 Million For Daughter’s Brain Damage
Some Considerations For Disabled iPad Users
There has been a recent surge in the use of new technology for assisting in communication with sufferers of cerebral palsy, namely in Apple’s iPad. Some parents of children with cerebral palsy and other birth defects are finding great benefits in using the iPad to communicate with their child in ways they would have never imagined a few years ago. There are parents of disabled children who have gone so far as to design applications themselves, using their intimate knowledge of their child’s limitations to create programs that cater to it. Michael Brooks, the father of a daughter with cerebral palsy, set up a website called Mia’s Apps, where other families can download the apps he designed to communicate with his daughter. The practice of using apps has spread widely enough to create the need for workshops designed around teaching parents how to use technology like the iPad with their…
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Forceps Cause Deadly Head Injury
Giving birth can be a traumatic experience even when everything goes right. People hope the doctor assisting in the birth will ease the process as much as possible, and ensure the healthy delivery of their child. Unfortunately, even highly skilled doctors make mistakes, and mistakes during birth can have disastrous results. A baby boy died in Ireland one week after his birth by emergency Caesarean due to brain trauma last month. There were complications in Daniel McGovern’s birth that led to a doctor attempting to extract him with forceps. The doctor was unsuccessful with the forceps and had to deliver the boy by Caesarean. After McGovern was delivered, it was discovered that he had a prominent traumatic lesion on his head with bleeding within the skull. Birth defects and baby brain injuries can occur for a variety of reasons, and often they are accidental. In this case, the doctor used…
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