Expecting parents dream of the day they finally get to welcome their baby into the world. However, those dreams can be shattered when medical malpractice causes severe birth injuries to the child. All too often, well-meaning doctors and nurses in Tennessee and the rest of the nation commit grave errors that cost families the dream of bringing home a healthy baby.
When these tragic acts of negligence occur, the families are often faced with a lifetime of extra medical bills, therapy costs and headache as they watch their children suffer from serious health complications that could have been avoided. In many cases, a family's only recourse is filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical professionals who are responsible.
This is exactly what happened to a Virginia military family that was living in Hawaii when their son suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” at birth in 2010. In a medical malpractice lawsuit, the family alleged that the birth injury was caused by medical negligence on behalf of the military hospital where the birth took place.
The pregnancy had been closely monitored as the mother had suffered miscarriages and the delivery of the couple's first child was complicated. That's why the lawsuit said doctors should have been on high alert when the mother was brought to the hospital on Sept. 7, 2010 with severe lower abdominal pain about 5 weeks before she was due.
Sadly, the lawsuit said that hospital staff failed to respond to signs of a uterine rupture, which the mother was at risk of because of her medical history, and so an emergency C-section was not performed quickly enough, resulting in the child being born with cerebral palsy.
Recently, it was reported that the family reached a tentative $9 million settlement with the military hospital. The funds will help the family pay costs associated with providing 24-hour care for their son for the rest of his life.