A Common Pleas Court jury awarded a four-year-old child and her family $32.8M due to brain damage that has severely affected her quality of life. This is considered to be one of the largest medical malpractice awards ever given to an individual in Chester County.

This jurisdiction has a reputation for being stingy in medical malpractice, so the high verdict was shocking for many. It may be somewhat in correlation with a $78.5 million verdict that was decided in a Philadelphia courthouse against another hospital for a similar situation. In this case in Philadelphia, nurses also failed to get the doctor when the child's heart rate spiked.

In the Chester County case, two nurses at a hospital attending to a pregnant mother were reckless and careless. This resulted in permanent brain damage. The child is now four, and suffers from spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. The jury determined that the nurses improperly cared for the child and failed to alert the doctor about a drastic change in the baby's heart rate for about 15 minutes during labor. During this span of time, the complications severely affected the previously-healthy baby's livelihood.

When she headed to the hospital, the mother did not have any concerns about her pregnancy. She was delivering close to her due date and experience common pain levels. The baby's heart rate dropped from about 150 beats per minute to 60 beats per minute during the delivery. Attorneys suggest that this occurred because of a kink in the baby's umbilical cord which made it impossible to get the oxygen it needed to keep its heart beating.

Two nurses attending to the birth mother saw the heart rate drop but did not tell the mother's doctor about the change. When the doctor came in to check on his patient, he noticed the heart rate and asked the nurses immediately to notify their supervisor. He also demanded that they locate an anesthesiologist. The doctor performed an emergency Cesarean section in hopes of saving the baby. The doctor said that if the baby had been delivered 15 minutes earlier, she probably would have been very healthy with no brain troubles at all. The nurses took a long time to locate an anesthesiologist, adding to the child's brain trauma.

The attorney for the plaintiffs says that the nurse's actions would be similar to a co-pilot who let a plane nosedive for minutes without telling the pilot. The jury determined that a third nurse involved in the delivery was not negligent in the case. The judge who presided over the trial says that he dismissed the mother's doctor as a defendant because he was notified of the complication. The two nurses that were involved in the incident no longer work at the hospital.

The child has a difficult time walking and suffers spasms in her legs, arms, and has difficulty her neck. She can hardly speak. Her mother says that they are slowly working with her to try and teach her to talk and walk. The size of her verdict will make certain that her needs are met as she grows older.

The child will probably need constant medical care for the rest of her life, and the $32.8 million will ensure that she gets the finances that she deserves. If you want more information about medical malpractice lawsuits, or if your child is the victim of a birth injury, then you need to talk with an attorney at the firm today to learn more! In both the Philadelphia and Chester County medical malpractice cases, the hospitals are owned by Community Health Systems of Franklin Tennessee.