August 5 2024 – Newborn Brain Injury due to failure to timely deliver
On August 5, 2024, WVFK&N attorneys Christopher Norman, John LaMantia, Soobin Lee, and Melissa Maiese filed a medical malpractice claim on behalf of a newborn who suffered an avoidable brain injury.
The complaint alleges that, on March 21, 2017, our mother-client presented to Javon Bea Hospital (hereinafter “JBH”) to confirm her pregnancy with Dr. Phillip Higgins. The pregnancy was deemed high-risk because of her advanced maternal age, gestational diabetes, and a prior cesarean delivery in 2014. Dr. Higgins referred our mother-client to Javon Bea Hospital’s Maternal Fetal Medicine Department for “supervision of elderly multigravida in second trimester” and because he was “requesting opinion and recommendation on [the] patient’s condition.”
On May 10, 2017, our mother-client was admitted by attending physician Dr. Alan Johnson to the Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit with complaints of “bright red vaginal bleeding approximately as heavy as a menstrual period.” An examination revealed an endocervical polyp protruding through the cervix. Dr. Johnson’s diagnosis of our mother-client was “Pregnancy bleeding secondary to placenta previa,” and other diagnoses in the records included “Complete placenta previa with hemorrhage, second trimester” and “Pregnancy with complication.” After 24 hours of monitoring, there was no more bleeding and the fetus was active with Category I heart rate tracings, indicating a healthy and viable fetus. Our mother-client was discharged and placed on moderate bedrest.
During her prenatal appointment with Dr. Higgins, our mother-client was scheduled for a Cesarean delivery on July 31, 2017 at a gestational age of 37 weeks, consistent with the recommendations of Dr. Royland Robinson, a physician who interpreted her imaging. From the time our mother-client discovered that she was pregnant through the middle of the summer, it became apparent through her imaging that she had “Placenta Complete Previa.” On July 3, 2017, at 33 weeks gestation, she presented to the Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit for the second time with concerns of vaginal bleeding, which was attributed to the cervical polyp.
On July 24, 2017, at 36 weeks gestation, our mother-client presented to the Hospital’s Labor & Delivery Department with complaints of a headache and concerns of preterm labor. Preterm labor was ruled out, and she was sent home. 3 days later, our mother-client’s providers canceled her scheduled Cesarean-section and rescheduled it for August 14, 2017.
On August 5, 2017, our mother-client presented to the Hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit complaining of extremely severe chest and left arm pain. Fetal heart tracings were tachycardic, and decelerations began early the next day. To determine the source of her pain, our mother-client underwent a CT scan. Dr. Sumoulindra Bhattacharya, Dr. Pamela Herbert, and Dr. Marques Bradshaw ruled out a heart attack and pleural effusion but failed to recognize a perigastric tumor in her abdomen. Dr. Sumoulindra Bhattacharya was informed of the excruciating pain she was experiencing, as well as the worsening decelerations and category of fetal heart strips, but he placed no new orders regarding her care. A Cesarean-section was eventually called, but not until there were 16 prolonged decelerations and 4–5 consecutive hours of category II fetal heart tracings.
After being removed from the fetal heart monitor for a total of 1 hour and 8 minutes, our child-client was born the morning of August 6, 2017 limp, apneic, with a low heart rate, and requiring immediate intubation. Her APGAR scores were 2, 4, and 5 consecutively at 1, 5, and 10 minutes of life. She was acidotic with an arterial gas pH of 6.77 and a base deficit of 26.1. Within her 30 minutes of life, she exhibited posturing and seizure like activity. She was immediately admitted to the NICU with the following diagnoses: “Active Hospital Problems Diagnosis: Meconium aspiration; Syndrome of infant of diabetic mother; Newborn infant of 37 completed weeks of gestation; Need for observation and evaluation of newborn for sepsis; Nutritional assessment; Seizures in the newborn; Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy of newborn; Persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn.” Cooling protocol was immediately commenced. She was given Phenobarbital and placed on an EEG.
On August 7, 2017, our child-client saw a pediatric cardiologist, who concluded that she was positive for respiratory distress. On December 19, 2017, at approximately four months of life, she required a nasogastric feeding tube to be placed in response to a “failure to thrive” diagnosis.
On January 16, 2019, at a year and a half of life, our child-client underwent an MRI of her head, which showed “encephalomalacia and proof of prior ischemic/anoxic injury. When compared to prior MRI of 8/11/2017, these findings represent sequela of ischemic injury visible on that exam.” She was consequently diagnosed with a brain injury and quadriplegic cerebral palsy.
Today, our child-client suffers from severe and permanent hypoxic-ischemic brain damage, global developmental delays, cognitive deficits, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy, among other permanent and catastrophic injuries and damages.
The lawsuit alleges that the injuries were a result of the negligence of Javon Bea Hospital and its employees in failing to properly interpret the fetal monitoring strips, failing to appropriately monitor for, diagnose, and respond to evidence of fetal distress, and failing to timely order an earlier delivery via Cesarean-section.
The action is pending in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial District in Winnebago County, Illinois.
