The birth of our client’s son was expected to be one of the happiest days of their lives. It was Mom’s first pregnancy, and she and her husband couldn’t have been more excited to welcome their son into the world. Their dreams of happiness quickly turned into a nightmare. The pregnancy was mismanaged, and the labor and delivery were complicated by numerous medical errors by the doctors responsible for the baby’s health.
Mom and Dad called our firm when their son was seven months old. Both mom and baby had endured a lengthy post-birth hospitalization. Their son was diagnosed with profound disabilities before he even left the hospital. He would never walk or talk, and would never be able to care for himself. He would require a lifetime of 24-hour medical support and care. Mom and Dad are incredibly loving and capable people. However, even they were not fully equipped – financially or emotionally — to deal with their son’s fate, or the toll his injuries and disability were already taking on their lives.
They called us for answers. How could they ever afford to provide their son the lifetime of medical care and support he would need? What would happen to their son if anything ever happened to them? Who would take care of him if they were gone? Even more important than learning answers to those questions, they wondered: why did this happen? The doctors at the hospital led Mom and Dad to believe that their son’s injuries were unavoidable. They were told that “these things happen,” and led them to believe that their son’s profound injuries and disability were simply the result of typical complications of labor and delivery. Their instinct told them differently, though, which prompted them to call us for answers.
Our firm acted quickly. We explained to Mom and Dad how the investigation would unfold. We had Mom sign medical authorizations, which permitted our office to obtain the labor and delivery records from the hospital. We also requested office notes from the doctors who were responsible for managing Mom’s pregnancy.
A month later, the records were delivered to our office. We kept in close contact with Mom and Dad throughout the investigation, explaining where we were in the process, and giving them reliable expectations about the timing, and telling them what to expect. Our internal legal team pored over the hundreds of pages of medical records. It became clear to us, based upon our extensive experience litigating these types of lawsuits, that mistakes were made both during the management of Mom’s pregnancy, and also during the labor and delivery process. Our internal review of
the medical records left us convinced that indefensible errors had been made by numerous doctors, and that the injuries to our clients’ son were absolutely avoidable if competent medical care had been provided.
We packaged up the medical records for review by one of the country’s most prominent obstetrical experts. Two weeks later, our expert called us, and we conducted a two-hour phone conference, during which our expert confirmed all of our suspicions. It was clear that medical negligence was the direct cause of the baby’s injuries. Our expert confirmed without a doubt that if Mom’s pregnancy and labor and deliver had been properly managed, her son would never have been injured. We called Mom and Dad to report this devastating news. The only thing worse than discovering your child has suffered a permanently disabling injury is learning the injuries should never have happened. We then went to work. We filed a lawsuit and started the process of developing various aspects of the
case necessary to bring it to a successful conclusion. We consulted with numerous qualified experts who investigated and computed the costs of the child’s lifetime needs for medical care and treatment, and calculated the value of the wages the child would never be able to earn over his lifetime due to his catastrophic injuries and permanent disability.
The litigation proceeded and a trial was scheduled. However, before trial, the doctors’ medical malpractice insurance companies called us to settle the case before trial. High-level settlement negotiations were conducted over the course of two weeks. Ultimately, we convinced the defendants’ insurance companies to pay our clients a sum of money hat would enable them to provide for their son for the rest of his life.
Our firm can never “undo” the injuries to a baby, nor can we make the impact of those injuries disappear. However, the compensation we were able to obtain for this family has enabled Mom and Dad to provide their son with the highest level of medical care, and it will ensure that their son will be well cared for even after his parents are no longer able to provide direct care due to their old age or eventual death. In short, the settlement paid an amount that will ensure that our clients’ son will never be left without the necessary financial protections for the remainder of his life.
The relationship we developed with Mom and Dad and their son during the two years of litigation was incredible. They placed their trust in us, and we worked extremely hard to maintain that trust, and deliver results. We are proud of the recovery we were able to obtain, and Mom and Dad have expressed endless thanks for our work on their behalf.
