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An $18.2 million settlement was awarded to a Wisconsin woman by the Federal government who funded the former Sinai-Samaritan Hospital in Milwaukee. The hospital was found negligent in the birth injury case. The plaintiff alleged that the child’s birth injury was due to the “horrific care” that she received from the hospital which led her daughter to suffer permanent and severe brain damage.
According to a source, the plaintiff claimed that when she went to the former Sinai-Samaritan Hospital to deliver her baby, the hospital staff failed to asses her risk of complications. She was also not referred to a specialist despite the fact that she had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had a documented history of delivering above average weight babies.
Instead, she was allegedly attended by a family practice and midwives. Her legal team insisted that had her pre-registration notes been more closely read, she may have received the proper medical attention that she needed, and her baby may have avoided a birth injury.
According to her testimony, not only was she not properly directed to the correct personnel, she was also left unattended for over 12 hours – even though she was already dilated.
During the delivery process, the baby became lodged for more than 20 minutes in the mother’s birth canal. The lack of oxygen suffered at this time is what caused the traumatic birth injuries. The majority of the $18.2 million that was awarded to the plaintiff will go toward affording future medical costs that the family is sure to incur throughout the now 10-year-old girl’s life. Hospitals in Queens and Staten Island try to avoid these situations.
A doctor says that a birth injury is defined as any trauma to a baby that occurs during the process of delivery and is usually caused by the amount of pressure and stress being placed on the baby as they go through the birth canal. Sometimes birth injury results from delivery room personnel using too much force in the delivery process. Prolonged labor that is not sent to the operating room for a Cesarean quick enough is another common birth injury cause.
For whatever reason, if you suspect your child’s birth injuries are the result of medical malpractice, contact a New York Birth Injury Attorney.