Many people have made the point, but we are going to repeat it here: when a negligent doctor or hospital is ordered to pay a large amount to a victim of medical malpractice, it is because the damage is extensive. That is the case in a lawsuit recently decided by a U.S. District Court judge who has ordered that a little boy and his parents are to be paid $33.8 million.
The boy, now 3 years old, suffered irreversible brain damage during his birth in early December of 2013. The judge in the case found that the attending physician was negligent and failed to provide the medical standard of care.
According to a news media report, the little boy is to receive $21.7 million for economic damages and an additional $7.6 million for pain and suffering. His mother is to receive $3.3 million and his father $1.1 million for pain and suffering they have been forced to endure.
Back in 2013, the mother was to give birth at a Florida hospital that received federal funding. She and the delivery nurse both testified at trial that she asked the doctor for a cesarean section; a request that he ignored.
In fact, according to evidence presented, the doctor left to attend to another delivery.
Unfortunately, the baby’s heart had slowed and he was born with irreparable brain damage. Both the plaintiffs and defense agreed that if a C-Section had been performed, the damage could have been averted.
“At the anticipated, joyful moment of birth of a crying, bouncing baby,” the judge stated about the parents, “they are instead presented with the dreadful specter of a blue, floppy, lifeless child.”
Though the baby was revived, the damage caused by oxygen deprivation was devastating.
Those who have loved ones harmed by a negligent doctor can speak with an attorney experienced in medical malpractice litigation.
