A New York jury awarded nearly $20 million to the parents of a child who was born with brain damage due to medical malpractice at a New York City hospital. Part of that award was for the mother of the child who was mutilated in the delivery.

A tragic case

According to news reports, the first time expecting parents went to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in New York City to deliver their baby. The hospital resident in charge of the delivery attempted to use forceps on the infant’s head during the delivery, but did so for 23 minutes – causing emergency resuscitation to be administered due to the trauma to his head. The baby, although initially still born and oxygen deprived, survived – but now has cerebral palsy.

In addition, the anesthesiologist mistakenly pumped oxygen into the infant’s stomach instead of his windpipe and the hospital resident mutilated the mother’s vaginal area. Surgeons attempted to repair the damage to the mother, but made the problem worse. The parents sued and a jury awarded them $20 million - $12 million for the mother’s injuries and nearly $8 million for the baby’s injuries. The couple had been trying to conceive a child for nearly eight years.

Birth injury cases

Birth injury cases imply that something happened during the birthing process that can result in either a damaged child who has neurological or profound disabilities or a child that is born viable and then dies. So once there's a death, the label is a wrongful death case. If the child survives, the label is called a birth injury negligence case. These are very unique cases that usually require several experts. They tend to be extremely complex and can be very expensive to litigate – sometimes upwards of $100,000 or more if the case ends up going to trial.

Due to the complexities of birth injury cases, potential plaintiffs should make sure to hire an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of the law. To hire the right attorney, make sure to ask what percentage of his or her practice focuses in medical negligence, whether they’ve handled birth injury cases and if so, what has been their track record of success?