The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a birth injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.
(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)
At home, Teimen continued to have contractions but believed they were Braxton Hicks contractions. At 9:30 a.m., she went to the office of her perinatologist, Dr. Mann, for a scheduled visit. Mann determined that Teimen was in active labor, and tried to give tocolytics to stop the labor, but was unsuccessful. Mann then sent Teimen to XYZ Center, where Perk conducted the delivery.
At 1:40 p.m., Ashley was delivered vaginally, weighing 680 grams, and at 1:58 p.m., Chris was delivered by Cesarean section, weighing 650 grams. Both babies were immediately taken to the neonatal intensive care unit due to their prematurity and conditions of respiratory distress, gastric perforation, and exclusive to Ashley, heart defects and brain injury.
Ashley and Chris, minors through their guardian ad litem, Meed Teimen, and Cathy Teimen, sued Perk and XYZ Center for medical malpractice.
Prior to trial, the parents’ causes of action were dropped from the case. Meed Teimen was dismissed via a defense motion for summary judgment, while Cathy Teimen voluntarily discontinued herself from the case. XYZ also reached a confidential settlement with the plaintiffs before trial.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.
The plaintiffs’ expert perinatologist contended that Perk should have ordered that Cathy Teimen remain in the hospital for observation for at least 12 hours. The expert claimed Perk was negligent for not diagnosing Teimen’s pre-term labor earlier, and that he should have started the administration of continuous tocolytics, antibiotics and betamethazone, which would have postponed the delivery for at least 48 hours.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.