Philadelphia Injury Lawyer Blog

The family of a five-year-old Chicago boy was awarded $14 million after he suffered a severe brain injury during birth that resulted in him having cerebral palsy. Staff members at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago allegedly mixed up the boy's heart rate with his mother's pulse rate.

The baby boy was not breathing when he was born, and the staff was not prepared to resuscitate him because of the monitoring error. The obstetrician and the nurse both misinterpreted the boy's heart rate before delivery and did not even realize the baby was in fetal distress.

The boy went without oxygen for seven minutes which, in turn, caused him to have cerebral palsy with total paralysis of his arms and legs. A neonatal resuscitation team was not called until the baby was delivered, and as soon as a breathing tube was placed in his airway, his heart rate increased. But it was too late; the damage to the brain had already been done, and the boy will never walk or talk.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to medical malpractice in Pennsylvania, please contact a Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

A Virginia woman has been indicted on charges that she confronted her doctor and his wife with a gun. She blamed the doctor for the birth injury suffered by her 1-year old son, who was born with cerebral palsy. She claims that the boy was born with cerebral palsy because she was forced to wait an hour and a half for her emergency delivery. The woman drove to the doctor's home, rang the doorbell, then walked in with gun drawn when the doctor's 11-year old daughter answered the door. Inside, she put the gun to her head and threatened to kill herself. However, she wanted the doctor to feel what she described as "fear" and "hopelessness" as they waited the same amount of time she waited for the delivery. While the couple waited, however, the daughter secretly made her way to the neighbor's house and called the police, who convinced the woman to put the gun down and took her into custody.

Although it sounds like it, this is not the action of a madwoman. The mother is a George Mason University professor and a midwife who has delivered more than 1,000 babies. She knew that for a baby's health, an emergency Caesarean section should be no longer than 30 minutes "from decision to incision," but this only made her feel more powerless as she waited, knowing her child was in danger. At least she had the consolation that she had a birthing contract with the doctor that would guarantee lifetime benefits for her child if he suffered from an injury due to a lack of oxygen at the time of birth. But when she learned that the doctor was not making the payments to the fund that guaranteed benefits, meaning her son was ineligible even though he had suffered injury, she had no recourse but to file a lawsuit. As the lawsuit dragged on, and a judge ordered that several of the counts against the doctor be dismissed, the woman felt the system had failed her. She had devoted her life to serving patients, but found in the end that not even those close to her held the same ideals.

Medicine is supposed to be a higher calling, but not everyone honors that call. If you have been hurt as a result of medical malpractice, you cannot count on the doctor to give you just compensation for your suffering. Contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.