$18.2 Million Awarded in Wisconsin Birth Injury Case

June 1, 2011

An $18.2 million dollar award was given to a Wisconsin woman by the Federal Government in a birth injury lawsuit according to local Milwaukee newspapers. The federally funded former Sinai-Samaritan Hospital in Milwaukee was found negligent in the birth injury case filed against them on behalf of a ten year old girl that now suffers from a severe and permanent brain injury. According to the girl’ mother, the “horrific care” she received from the hospital during labor is what directly caused her daughter’ severe brain damage.

During the trial, the plaintiff claimed that when she went to the former Sinai-Samaritan Hospital to deliver her baby, the hospital staff did not address her previous health complications and she was not referred to a specialist even though she had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The woman also had a documented medical history of previously delivering above average weight babies. Instead of the hospital referring her to specialists, she was attended by a family practice doctor as well as midwives.

Her attorney and medical experts testified that had her pre-registration notes been read more closely and had she been directed to the right specialists given her preexisting conditions, she may have received the proper medical attention that she needed and avoided the birth injury that her daughter sustained. Further complicating the birth of her daughter, court testimony revealed that the woman was left unattended for duration of over twelve hours during her labor even though she was already dilated.

During delivery the baby became lodged for over twenty minutes in the mother’ birth canal. This caused the baby to suffer a lack of oxygen which directly resulted in the traumatic birth injuries the baby sustained. The majority of the $18.2 million that was awarded to the plaintiff will go to aiding in future medical costs given the extent of her daughter’ birth injuries. Chicago birth injury lawyers have achieved similar results in cases of this nature. As always, each birth injury case must be analyzed on its own unique facts and challenges.