Jury Awards 23.8 Million to Family of Baby Born With Cerebral Palsy

By Brittany Golledge

Published on August 01, 2005

On May 11th, jurors in a Massachusetts state court issued one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in state history after finding two obstetricians negligent in the 1996 birth of a child born with brain damage.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the traumatic delivery could have been avoided had hospital physicians adequately monitored the progress of the birth. Specialists testified at trial that the brain damage sustained during delivery likely caused the child to develop cerebral palsy.

One of the central issues of the lawsuit involved allegations that doctors acted negligently in continuing to prescribe labor-inducing drugs instead of offering a cesarean section to the mother. The lawsuit alleged that the two obstetricians failed to pay adequate attention to the mother before the birth, and failed to notice that the child's head was tipped during delivery.

The parents also maintained that doctors failed to warn them of the risks of vacuum extraction, which was attempted on the child 11 times before the mother eventually delivered the child. Attorneys for the doctors argued that suction was the best alternative in what they described as a difficult birth.

Though the defendants agree that the birth was traumatic, they argue that the mother was adequately monitored, and the birth would have been difficult despite their best efforts.

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