$8.7 Million Settlement For Young Mom Who Suffered Brain Damage After Delivering Healthy Baby

A healthy, 24-year-old woman went into a hospital to deliver her first child, after a normal pregnancy. The baby, a little boy, was successfully delivered and the mother was taken to recovery. While in the recovery area after delivery, the mother became less and less alert, and her blood oxygen level began to go down slowly and steadily, because she was having an adverse reaction to medication that was being administered at excessive levels. The decrease in blood oxygen levels could easily have been reversed by stopping the medication or decreasing the amount being delivered, but the recovery room nurse did nothing until the patient’s heart stopped. A code blue was called, but the code team did not administer the right medications. The young woman never regained consciousness and was left with a profound brain damage and in a semi-comatose state. Our lawyers consulted with physicians and child psychologists to determine how best to care for the young woman and address the psychological needs of her husband, and more particularly, her son. The settlement proceeds allowed for the necessary around-the-clock nursing care and also a handicapped-accessible home where she could receive that nursing care and be in a family environment with her husband and son. The case settled on the eve of trial for $8.7 million.

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