I got a kick out of this webpage, afflicted with mistakes and misspellings:
Arbitration and Kaiser Permanente California
...Nursing staff at Kaiser Sacramento iled to follow proper protocols when the innt showed signs of hypoglyarbitration and kaiser permanentecemia.
...3-year-old boy afflicted with multiple neurological injuries as a result of negligent delivery at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Redwood City...
That page led me to this far-more-sophisticated page:
California Birth Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Brain Damage Attorneys
Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger
...Nurse Error
In a case involving cerebral palsy and cortical blindness, our birth injury attorneys represented a Sonoma County family in a claim seeking damages for their 5-year-old daughter's brain damage. The little girl was the first child for a 42-year-old mother who should have been treated as a high-risk pregnancy but was not. The defendant doctor was a family practitioner who should have referred the mother and babies care to a high risk OB program. During a prolonged labor the expectant mother failed to progress and the child's fetal monitor strip demonstrated worrisome heart rate decelerations after contractions but the attending nurses ignored these. Experts retained by Walkup birth injury attorneys analyzed the monitoring strips and identified multiple indications of fetal stress. Our nursing experts were prepared to testify that the attending nurses should have called an on call obstetrician to perform a prompt C-section under these circumstances In mediation, our lawyers negotiated one of the largest settlements in Sonoma County history, payable both in cash and monthly installments to take care of the child now and throughout her projected life expectancy. The settlement was crafted so that future payments will increase with inflation and will be sufficient to pay for therapy, attendant care, visual and verbal stimulation, and future lost wages. A special needs trust was also established to preserve the child's ability to receive public benefits in the future.
- Brain Damage
Our birth injury settlement attorneys obtained a mediated settlement in a major obstetrical injury case involving anoxic brain damage and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The case was brought on behalf of a two-year-old Sonoma County boy who sustained global brain damage when fetal distress was neither noted nor responded to during his birth. The settlement also included resolution of his parent's claims for emotional distress and his potential future wrongful death. The parents recovery was limited to the unfair and discriminatory limit of $250,000 per claim imposed by California's outdated MICRA statute. A special needs trust was established with an initial corpus of more than $1,250,000 into which future annuity payments (commencing at $5,000 per month, increasing at 5% annually, for life, guaranteed 20 years) are to be deposited. A second, separate, annuity will begin paying an additional $4,000 per month, increasing at 4% per year, when the child reaches his 18th birthday. Because the child is eligible for both CCS and Regional Center benefits until he reaches the age of three, the past out of pocket expenditures made by the parents have been modest - as a result, the settlement was designed to be back-loaded (and guaranteed) to protect against the cost of custodial and attendant care in a home-based environment in the future. The settlement is believed to be among the largest ever negotiated on behalf of a North Bay plan member of this HMO.
- Anoxic Brain Damage
Our traumatic brain injury attorneys obtained a cash and annuity settlement having a present cash value of more than $5,000,000 on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who sustained irreparable brain damage during her birth process. The defendant in the case was a national health maintenance organization. The obstetricians employed by the health maintenance organization failed to correctly analyze or diagnose signs of fetal distress as shown on fetal monitoring tapes Our brain injury attorneys hired experts in obstetrics and perinatology to testify that a timely cesarean section, occurring 45 minutes or more before the actual birth, would have prevented the child from sustaining anoxic brain damage (brain cell death due to lack of oxygen). Attorneys for the defendant health care provider attempted to prove that the child's brain injuries were not the result of oxygen deprivation during the labor process, but rather were the result of an infection, which the mother experienced one month before her delivery. When combined with available benefits provided by private insurance and government programs, the guaranteed future monthly and annual payments to be made under the settlement should assure that the his medical and special needs will be met regardless of his life expectancy.
- Prolonged Labor Infant Death
Our obstetrical injury lawyers resolved this birth injury case, in the maximum amount permitted by California's Medical Malpractice statutes ( MICRA ) on behalf of the parents of a newborn infant who died after his mother's uterus ruptured. The mother was admitted to the hospital with contractions, but was sent home several hours later because the nurses felt she was not progressing. Once home, she began to experience severe abdominal pain. By the time the defendant doctors realized that the infant was outside the uterus in the abdominal cavity, an emergency cesarean section was unsuccessful in saving the childs life. Walkup Melodia birth injury attorneys, working with expert witnesses in the fields of perinatology and obstetrics, demonstrated that the mother should never have been sent home from the hospital, and that if she had been monitored properly, her uterine rupture would have been anticipated, avoided and a safe and timely cesarean section performed.
- Failure to Recognize Fetal Distress
Our birth injury attorneys negotiated a cash and annuity settlement with a present cash value in excess of five million dollars on behalf of an infant born with severe developmental delay, spastic quadriparesis, and permanent neurological injuries after Kaiser San Francisco doctors and nursing staff failed to monitor the mother and deliver the baby quickly when fetal heart monitors indicated severe distress. The 36-year-old mother's pregnancy and delivery seemed to be progressing normally when, 8 hours after being admitted to the hospital, she developed a high fever. The doctor on call administered antibiotics for suspected chorioamnionitis, (an inflammation of the amniotic membranes), and said he would check back in an hour. Nearly three hours later, the fetal heart rate monitors indicated that the baby's heart rate had dropped to 85 and 90, and remained there for about 10 minutes, prompting a frightened nurse to contact the doctor. Deceleration of the fetal heart rate is a common effect of chorioamnionitis. The infant was born a half hour later, by emergent vacuum extraction, with no heart rate, and appearing blue, floppy, and apneic. She was resuscitated through chest compressions and intubation. In the days following her birth, the infant exhibited general seizures with tremors in the lower and upper extremities. An MRI performed 8 days after her birth revealed that the infant had severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. The child will remain fully dependant for all of her care needs for her entire life. She is not expected to develop beyond the level of a one-month-old infant. Liability was based upon failure to aggressively monitor the mother and fetus post administration of antibiotics and failure to deliver the baby when infection was first suspected.
- Failure to Diagnose Down Syndrome
Our Birth Injury Specialists obtained a wrongful birth settlement in the amount of $875,000 when a child was born with Down syndrome. The pregnancy was considered high risk because the mother was 34-years-old and pregnant with twins. In violation of its own policy regarding high-risk pregnancies, the medical center failed to offer the mother an opportunity to undergo amniocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling early in course of her pregnancy. Had the doctors detected Down Syndrome with these tests, the mother could have been offered "selective reduction" to terminate the fetus that was determined to be the one with a birth defect. The parents brought claims for emotional distress and economic damages resulting from the complications of Down syndrome through the child's minority. In addition, an economic damages claim was brought for the child himself, for the cost to treat complications in his majority.
- Failure To Perform Timely Cesarean Section
In another case involving cerebral palsy, our birth injury attorneys obtained a binding and final arbitration award against Kaiser, following a two week arbitration. That arbitration award had a present cash value of $4,100,000 and was secured on behalf of a 3-year-old boy afflicted with multiple neurological injuries as a result of negligent delivery. Our birth injury team of attorneys and physician experts were able to prove that the infant endured a period of oxygen deprivation when his mother's uterus ruptured. The uterine rupture was due to an attending midwife's failure to properly manage the mother while in labor. Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger attorneys also proved that obstetrical nurses left the mother unattended prior to the rupture of her uterus, and for that reason failed to appreciate ominous signs of the baby's distress as reported on a fetal heart monitor. Before the beginning of the arbitration, Kaiser had made no settlement offer.
- Delayed Admittance to Hospital (Cerebral Palsy)
Our birth injury trial team negotiated a pre-trial mediated settlement on behalf of a child who suffered profound injuries when her mother's uterus ruptured at the site of a previous myomectomy (surgery to remove a fibroid in the uterine wall). Two weeks prior to the baby's emergent delivery, the child's mother was hospitalized in pre-term labor. After being medicated and released, she was advised to observe strict bed rest and communicate with her OBGYN's office. At 10:00 p.m. the evening before delivery, the parents called to report painful contractions. Without determining the onset, frequency, characteristics or location of the pain suffered by the mother, an on-duty advice nurse told the mother to take an additional dose of her anti-contraction medication and call if her condition worsened. Eight hours later, the mother awoke in severe pain. Her husband called 911. She was taken to a local hospital where the child was delivered by emergency C-section at 32 weeks gestation. We proved that the doctors employees were employees were negligent in failing to order the mother to the hospital at the time of the phone call. The child was diagnosed with periventricular leukomalacia, and later developed infantile spasms and cerebral palsy. The settlement was composed of both an initial cash payment and guaranteed monthly future annuity payments to offset the cost of future medical, therapy, laboratory and attendant care.
- Failure to Recognize Neonatal Hypoglycemia
Our attorneys obtained a mediated settlement of $2,250,000 on behalf of a male infant who now suffers from blindness, developmental delay and cognitive deficits, and who also had his pancreas removed, after nursing staff failed to follow proper protocols when the infant showed signs of hypoglycemia. The infant was born weighing 10 pounds, 7-1/2 ounces, which should have triggered blood screening tests at one, two, four, six and eight hours of age. Any tests revealing low blood sugar levels required that a blood sample be drawn and sent for analysis. In this case, the infant's six-hour test was conducted at seven hours of age, and came back showing low blood sugar. However, the protocol requiring that blood be drawn and sent to the lab was not followed. The infant's parents were never told of the abnormal result or warned to look for signs of hypoglycemia. At 24 hours of age, the infant and his parents were discharged. On the second morning at home, his mother had a hard time rousing him, and he presented at Urgent Care lethargic, not nursing, and with purple feet. He then suffered several seizures and was admitted to the hospital. Tests revealed that he had nesidioblastosis, a disease of the pancreas, resulting in profound, unremitting hypoglycemia. An MRI revealed evidence of posterior cerebral artery infarction, consistent with the diagnosis of severe hypoglycemia. Ultimately, nearly all of the infant's pancreas had to be removed. The settlement in this case was structured to pay monthly guaranteed payments to help offset future costs of attendant and nursing care and to supplement health insurance coverage and public program benefits, plus $732,000 to be paid into a trust on the infant's behalf.
- Infant Death (Uterine Rupture)
Our medical malpractice obstetrical injury lawyers resolved this birth injury case, in a confidential amount, on behalf of the parents of a 2-day-old infant who died after his mother's uterus ruptured during labor. The mother was admitted to the hospital with contractions, but was sent home several hours later because the nurses felt she was not progressing. Once home, she began to experience severe abdominal pain. By the time doctors realized that the infant was outside the uterus in the abdominal cavity, an emergency cesarean section was unsuccessful in delivering the baby before it suffered severe compromise. The child died two days later. Our attorneys demonstrated that the mother should never have been sent home from the hospital, and that had she been monitored properly, her impending uterine rupture would have been recognized, and a timely cesarean section would have been performed. The claim of our clients sought damages for the wrongful death of their daughter as well as the mother's personal injuries.
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