Original Story: chicagotribune.com
A Cook County jury has awarded $53 million to a 12-year-old Hickory Hills boy and his mother in a 2013 lawsuit filed against the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was born with a serious brain injury. A Chicago medical malpractice lawyer said this will help to pay for the boy's future healthcare.
The jury's award to Lisa and Isaiah Ewing includes $28.8 million for future caretaking expenses, according to a copy of the jury verdict form provided by their lawyers, Geoffrey Fieger of suburban Detroit and Jack Beam of Chicago. Isaiah has severe cerebral palsy, is in a wheelchair, and needs his mother to feed and clothe him.
It was the biggest birth injury verdict ever in Cook County, said John Kirkton, editor of Jury Verdict Reporter in Chicago.
Their lawsuit outlined about 20 alleged missteps by doctors and nurses after Ewing arrived about 40 weeks pregnant at the hospital and was experiencing less movement by her baby. The mistakes, the lawsuit alleged, included the failures to carefully monitor mother and baby, perform a timely cesarean section, follow a chain of command, obtain accurate cord blood gases, and be aware of abnormal fetal heart rate patterns that indicated distress to the baby, including hypoxia, or a drop in the supply of oxygen. "The University of Chicago has been, for the last 12 years, completely unapologetic, and even though the evidence was overwhelming that they caused Isaiah's brain damage, they refused to accept responsibility," Fieger said at the news conference Thursday. Ewing hadn't had any problems during her pregnancy, he added.
Before the case went to the jury, the hospital filed for a mistrial.
Fieger's "closing argument shattered the line between zealous advocacy and improper prejudicial comments, rendering it impossible for defendant to receive a fair trial," the hospital's lawyer said in a court filing. "He also prejudicially argued that the defendant's case was built on a falsehood and proceeded to equate defendant's conduct and testimony of its witnesses with the propaganda techniques notoriously and unmistakably associated with Nazi Germany."
Hospital spokeswoman Lorna Wong said the hospital had "great sympathy" for the family but "strongly" disagrees with the jury's verdict.
"Judge Kirby declined to enter judgment on the verdict, as there are pending motions for mistrial based on assertions of Mr. Fieger's improper conduct," she said, noting that it wouldn't be the first overturned verdict involving Fieger.
She said Isaiah and his mother were treated for infection, which can cause cerebral palsy. "Isaiah was born with normal oxygen blood levels," and the "injury occurred before the care Mr. Fieger criticized."
After the news conference, Fieger said he expected the judge to confirm the verdict. "The jury has spoken," he said. A Chicago Brain Injury Lawyer said this is usually how this procedure occurs.
The jury decided the case in four hours, Fieger said. A list of the damages also includes $7.2 million for future medical expenses. The document was signed by 12 jurors.
Fieger disputed that Isaiah had an infection.
"All of the medical records at the University of Chicago neonatal clinic showed that Isaiah had been suffocated at birth, that he had suffered hypoxia, lack of oxygen, yet the University of Chicago and its lawyers came to court and tried to tell the jury that their own records were false, that their own records were mistaken and that Isaiah really had a phantom infection that infected his brain that they could never have known about," Fieger said during the news conference.
Ewing said at the news conference that she has to bathe Isaiah and help him go to the bathroom. She lives in a two-story town home, so she must carry him up and down the stairs.
She said the verdict will help ensure that Isaiah is taken care of after she dies.
Showing posts with label birth injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birth injury. Show all posts
01 May 2012
Midwifery Under Fire In Idaho
Story first appeared on FOX News.
Midwives and doctors are longtime rivals in the politics governing where women should give birth: Home or hospital.
The Baby Place in Meridian remains open, but its midwife owner and her daughte are barred for now from practicing, in part over decisions allegedly influenced by their distrust and frayed relationships with doctors in hospitals where they felt mistreated or disrespected.
A former employee who trained at The Baby Place said that the hostility that developed for doctors ultimately led to delays in emergency transports to hospitals. This antagonism caused them to make decisions against the best interests of mothers and babies, broadening the historic midwife-doctor divide to a wide gulf - with tragic consequences.
Idaho investigators who began scrutinizing the midwives after one of the three mothers who lost babies lodged a complaint with the state.
The midwives, whose website indicates they've helped 1,400 women give birth, declined interviews, including on Monday. A receptionist who answered the phone declined to say who is providing services to women following the March 23 suspensions.
St. Luke's Health System states that they are not anti-midwife. Women have the option to choose where they have their babies. But the facility wants to make sure that all the safety regulations are in place.
Though more than 99 percent of U.S. women give birth in hospitals, home births are increasing, accounting for 0.72 percent of deliveries in 2009, up from 0.56 percent in 2004, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Significantly more Idaho women have a midwife-assisted birth or home birth than the national average. About 3.2 percent of the 92,000 total births between 2008 and 2011 were midwife-assisted, either at birthing centers or home birth.
Given that, remedying feuds like the one that influenced the midwive's decision-making is growing more important.
Midwives often feel disrespected by the medical establishment, while doctors' objections to out-of-hospital births may harden with every traumatic transport.
This comes on top of the already-existing divide between the two views of childbirth, with midwives emphasizing the safety of natural births in a familiar, comfortable setting, while the American Medical Association contends women are best off in a hospital, where life-saving technology is nearby if something goes awry.
There is a compulsory interaction between two value systems. A transport means these two systems have to come together - and work together.
The Idaho Board of Midwifery probe that preceded the suspensions highlights numerous instances where investigators said that didn't happen.
In August 2011, the daughter of the facility owner waited 11 minutes to call paramedics after a baby was born "limp, unresponsive and pale," investigators wrote. The mother labored for more than 48 hours, prompting the Meridian Police Department to launch an ongoing criminal negligence investigation after the baby died. There are some questions about the length of labor.
On Oct. 11, 2010, a student midwife improperly cut an infant's umbilical cord, resulting in significant blood loss before the baby died. The daughter then failed to provide medical personnel at St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center with relevant records, investigators wrote.
And on June 30, 2010, the facility owner delayed paramedics from entering The Baby Place for four minutes. When they were finally allowed in, she instructed them to drive past two nearby hospitals to St. Luke's in Boise, adding precious minutes to a journey that ended in the infant boy's death.
The mother, said in an interview that the midwife bypassed the closest facilities because she wouldn't be allowed to remain at the woman's side. The mother stated that she didn't care what facility she went to, she just cared about getting to a hospital.
The Baby Place's web site does indicate negative feelings toward hospitals, with one employee writing in a testimonial to prospective clients that she began her midwife studies after a hospital birth where she felt cheated out of the birth experience.
The Baby Place midwive's do have troubled relationships with doctors, according to a long time patron, who planned her eighth child's delivery at The Baby Place in 2007 but was forced by complications to transfer to nearby St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center. Her family witnessed hostile doctors force Coleen Goodwin from the delivery room.
Still, she remains an ardent Baby Place supporter, and doesn't believe those experiences led the owner to endanger women or their babies.
In addition to the three babies that died, the midwive's were hit by a separate 2010 lawsuit, filed by the parents of a baby that suffered permanent brain damage. Last week, the midwives agreed to pay $5 million to the couple that sued.
The attorney on the case said that he pursued the case pro bono because he couldn't in good conscience dismiss the case as long as they continue to practice in this facility.
Objective measures of Idaho's midwife-doctor relationships - and their impacts on babies - are difficult to come by, because the state doesn't keep comprehensive records of the outcomes of midwife-assisted births requiring hospital transports.
A private effort, the Idaho Perinatal Project run by St. Luke's, documented 138 instances between 2005 and 2011 where mothers who planned a home birth were transported to a hospital.
Though its records are also incomplete - reporting is voluntary; there are no reports for 2012 - they do point to the trauma that accompanies a planned out-of-hospital birth where something goes wrong. There were at least nine cases where infants died at or before arriving at the hospital and several instances of birth asphyxia, fractures, post-partum hemorrhage and unexpected twins. Baltimore Birth Injury Lawyers are following the case.
For many doctors who don't see the cases of successful home births, these tense interactions add to already deep misgivings about midwifery.
Standards set by Idaho's midwife licensing that took effect in 2010 have fostered communication between most midwives and doctors, despite problems investigators found at The Baby Place.
Midwives now visit St. Luke's, attending some staff meetings. Doctors' appreciation for midwives' services has grown.
Hopefully when the Idaho Legislature reviews the state's midwife rules in 2014, when the existing licensing law expires, they'll make it mandatory for midwives and doctors to track outcomes of transfers. Hopefully, these measures will reduce the number of birth trauma and birth injury in both mother and infant.
For more healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Midwives and doctors are longtime rivals in the politics governing where women should give birth: Home or hospital.
The Baby Place in Meridian remains open, but its midwife owner and her daughte are barred for now from practicing, in part over decisions allegedly influenced by their distrust and frayed relationships with doctors in hospitals where they felt mistreated or disrespected.
A former employee who trained at The Baby Place said that the hostility that developed for doctors ultimately led to delays in emergency transports to hospitals. This antagonism caused them to make decisions against the best interests of mothers and babies, broadening the historic midwife-doctor divide to a wide gulf - with tragic consequences.
Idaho investigators who began scrutinizing the midwives after one of the three mothers who lost babies lodged a complaint with the state.
The midwives, whose website indicates they've helped 1,400 women give birth, declined interviews, including on Monday. A receptionist who answered the phone declined to say who is providing services to women following the March 23 suspensions.
St. Luke's Health System states that they are not anti-midwife. Women have the option to choose where they have their babies. But the facility wants to make sure that all the safety regulations are in place.
Though more than 99 percent of U.S. women give birth in hospitals, home births are increasing, accounting for 0.72 percent of deliveries in 2009, up from 0.56 percent in 2004, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Significantly more Idaho women have a midwife-assisted birth or home birth than the national average. About 3.2 percent of the 92,000 total births between 2008 and 2011 were midwife-assisted, either at birthing centers or home birth.
Given that, remedying feuds like the one that influenced the midwive's decision-making is growing more important.
Midwives often feel disrespected by the medical establishment, while doctors' objections to out-of-hospital births may harden with every traumatic transport.
This comes on top of the already-existing divide between the two views of childbirth, with midwives emphasizing the safety of natural births in a familiar, comfortable setting, while the American Medical Association contends women are best off in a hospital, where life-saving technology is nearby if something goes awry.
There is a compulsory interaction between two value systems. A transport means these two systems have to come together - and work together.
The Idaho Board of Midwifery probe that preceded the suspensions highlights numerous instances where investigators said that didn't happen.
In August 2011, the daughter of the facility owner waited 11 minutes to call paramedics after a baby was born "limp, unresponsive and pale," investigators wrote. The mother labored for more than 48 hours, prompting the Meridian Police Department to launch an ongoing criminal negligence investigation after the baby died. There are some questions about the length of labor.
On Oct. 11, 2010, a student midwife improperly cut an infant's umbilical cord, resulting in significant blood loss before the baby died. The daughter then failed to provide medical personnel at St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center with relevant records, investigators wrote.
And on June 30, 2010, the facility owner delayed paramedics from entering The Baby Place for four minutes. When they were finally allowed in, she instructed them to drive past two nearby hospitals to St. Luke's in Boise, adding precious minutes to a journey that ended in the infant boy's death.
The mother, said in an interview that the midwife bypassed the closest facilities because she wouldn't be allowed to remain at the woman's side. The mother stated that she didn't care what facility she went to, she just cared about getting to a hospital.
The Baby Place's web site does indicate negative feelings toward hospitals, with one employee writing in a testimonial to prospective clients that she began her midwife studies after a hospital birth where she felt cheated out of the birth experience.
The Baby Place midwive's do have troubled relationships with doctors, according to a long time patron, who planned her eighth child's delivery at The Baby Place in 2007 but was forced by complications to transfer to nearby St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center. Her family witnessed hostile doctors force Coleen Goodwin from the delivery room.
Still, she remains an ardent Baby Place supporter, and doesn't believe those experiences led the owner to endanger women or their babies.
In addition to the three babies that died, the midwive's were hit by a separate 2010 lawsuit, filed by the parents of a baby that suffered permanent brain damage. Last week, the midwives agreed to pay $5 million to the couple that sued.
The attorney on the case said that he pursued the case pro bono because he couldn't in good conscience dismiss the case as long as they continue to practice in this facility.
Objective measures of Idaho's midwife-doctor relationships - and their impacts on babies - are difficult to come by, because the state doesn't keep comprehensive records of the outcomes of midwife-assisted births requiring hospital transports.
A private effort, the Idaho Perinatal Project run by St. Luke's, documented 138 instances between 2005 and 2011 where mothers who planned a home birth were transported to a hospital.
Though its records are also incomplete - reporting is voluntary; there are no reports for 2012 - they do point to the trauma that accompanies a planned out-of-hospital birth where something goes wrong. There were at least nine cases where infants died at or before arriving at the hospital and several instances of birth asphyxia, fractures, post-partum hemorrhage and unexpected twins. Baltimore Birth Injury Lawyers are following the case.
For many doctors who don't see the cases of successful home births, these tense interactions add to already deep misgivings about midwifery.
Standards set by Idaho's midwife licensing that took effect in 2010 have fostered communication between most midwives and doctors, despite problems investigators found at The Baby Place.
Midwives now visit St. Luke's, attending some staff meetings. Doctors' appreciation for midwives' services has grown.
Hopefully when the Idaho Legislature reviews the state's midwife rules in 2014, when the existing licensing law expires, they'll make it mandatory for midwives and doctors to track outcomes of transfers. Hopefully, these measures will reduce the number of birth trauma and birth injury in both mother and infant.
For more healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
24 April 2012
Major Breakthrough in Cerebral Palsy Treatments
Story first appeared in The Detroit News.
In research that is being hailed as a major breakthrough, cerebral palsy symptoms were dramatically reduced at birth in a study by Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, involved the use of rabbits, an anti-inflammatory drug and a nanodevice.
Researchers developed a model of cerebral palsy in rabbits that replicated the disorder's neuroinflammation found in the human brains and subsequent motor deficits. The animals that were treated with the anti-inflammatory drug were able to walk and hop within five days.
The importance of this work is it indicates that there is a window in time immediately after birth where it can be identified, and a nanodevice can reverse the features of cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a group of movement disorders caused by injury or abnormal development. and has no cure. Symptoms range from mild to severe and can affect intellectual ability. It affects approximately 750,000 babies and adults, and the cost of caring for a person with the disorder is estimated at $1 million over a lifetime. The leading cause is premature birth. However, cerebral palsy in infants can be caused by medical negligence or medical malpractice, according to Birth Injury Lawyers. Meaning that the doctors responsible for the birthing do not deliver the child quickly enough, and the baby suffers asphyxia or hypoxia, which is lack of oxygen to the brain.
For more healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
In research that is being hailed as a major breakthrough, cerebral palsy symptoms were dramatically reduced at birth in a study by Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, involved the use of rabbits, an anti-inflammatory drug and a nanodevice.
Researchers developed a model of cerebral palsy in rabbits that replicated the disorder's neuroinflammation found in the human brains and subsequent motor deficits. The animals that were treated with the anti-inflammatory drug were able to walk and hop within five days.
The importance of this work is it indicates that there is a window in time immediately after birth where it can be identified, and a nanodevice can reverse the features of cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a group of movement disorders caused by injury or abnormal development. and has no cure. Symptoms range from mild to severe and can affect intellectual ability. It affects approximately 750,000 babies and adults, and the cost of caring for a person with the disorder is estimated at $1 million over a lifetime. The leading cause is premature birth. However, cerebral palsy in infants can be caused by medical negligence or medical malpractice, according to Birth Injury Lawyers. Meaning that the doctors responsible for the birthing do not deliver the child quickly enough, and the baby suffers asphyxia or hypoxia, which is lack of oxygen to the brain.
For more healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
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