Birth Injury Compensation: €1 Million Medical Malpractice Settlement

A couple of parents settled in a peripheric and quiet town in central Italy, is thrilled by the upcoming birth of their first child. They are young and newly married, to the emotion of the marriage celebrated only a few years before was added the news of the pregnancy they had longed for.

They carefully arranged the details of the birth for the whole duration of the pregnancy. After knowing that they were going to give birth to a baby girl, the joy came to the seventh heaven. They furnished the little room that will house the child with pink colors and furniture, flowers and cartoon characters smiling on the walls, a crib where they laid the crocheted blankets donated by their grandparents, perhaps even more excited than the parents.

Delayed Cesarean Section and Severe Disability: Birth Injury Case

It's the spring of 2010 and everything looks ready. The delivery is due for middle April. As the date of the happy event approaches, so does anxiety as it is normal for two novice parents. Fortunately, to reassure them, there are doctors who have followed for all nine months the development of pregnancy.

Everything went smoothly and perfectly, even the latest analyses showed that the baby is healthy and there are no contraindications for a natural birth.

Thus, as the two parents arrive at the hospital on the day set for birth, doctors and nurses prepare the woman for delivery.

Unexpectedly, as medical staff is performing as usual the analyses of the woman's blood, responses are revealing some values too high compared to normal.

In this case, it is highly recommended to proceed without further delay with an emergency surgical birth.

Inexplicably, doctors preferred to wait for nature to do its course and leave the woman to face labor. Blood and heart tests are carried out, noticing signs of suffering from the fetus.

Despite this, the woman is leaved to labor and no emergency surgery is attempted to save woman’s and her child life.

Not only that, but as the clinical picture suddenly worsened, it should have prompted doctors to seek the assistance of qualified health professionals and experts in neonatal resuscitation.

The child is finally born, but with a very serious psychical and physical retardation affecting the little newborn for her life on.

Life will never be the same for anyone

The despair of the family is immense. Grandparents and friends who were supposed to gather to celebrate the birth of their first granddaughter, are grieving the two astonished parents.

They cannot believe that within a few hours, the dream of having a healthy and happy daughter has turned into the harsh reality of a creature marked throughout its life by a physical and mental handicap from which she has no chance of recovering.

The lives of the two, and their families, will be turned upside down. There will be a need for continuous hospitalizations, rehabilitation, day and night care to help her in the most basic activities: eating, doing physical needs and unfortunately also breathing.

The little girl will never be able to appreciate the world around her orrealize how much her family will love her unconditionally; she will never be able to play with friends or go to school: in short, she will never have a normal life.

And it will not be a normal life even for her parents, who will be forced to readjust the house’sarrangement to make room for the little girl’s special equipment, buy acar able to carry a special wheelchair.

For sure, one of the two parents will have to give up work to follow minute by minute the unfortunate daughter, being unable to collect extra funds needed to hire a special nurse.

It's an obvious case of malpractice

It is difficult to resign at the birth of a child with a disability, but even more difficult to accept this diagnosis after birth, by surprise, when a perfectly healthy child is expected to be delivered.

Yes, because for the duration of the gestation there had been no problems and until the last moment, no one could venture to think what an immense tragedy would happen.

And it is not an hypothesis that there would not have been a tragedy like this at all should the doctors had stopped the labor in time and rushed the woman to the operating room for an emergency surgical birth, instead of insisting on waiting for the woman to give birth naturally.

The lawyer decides to file a civil suit

Thanks to the presence of a very well-established law firm on the subject of malpractice and clinical negligence, based in a city short distanced from the country where the two parents live, this story has had a comfortable epilogue.

It is true, sadly, that nothing will restore beauty and health to the little girl.

The Malpractice Lawyer realizes soon that the choice not to operate the woman is the outcome of negligence and not a mere coincidence. Analysis results from mother and unborn child spoke clearly: every extra minute that the fetus remained in the womb, it was an aggravation of the damage it would suffer to the body and brain.

In addition to that circumstance, it is undeniable thatin presence of such a prenatal suffering, it would have been strictly necessary the presence of doctors able to provide emergency care to the little girl, providing her intensive care as soon as she was born.

The criminal complaint is filed

A criminal complaint is charged against the Hospital by the parents as soon as they realizes how poorly the delivery was managed by clinical staff.

The parents, accompanied by the lawyer, go to the Prosecutor's Office to tell the facts and explain the reasons that they believe led to the recognition of a violation of the Italian penal code.

The Public Prosecutor's Office, however, does not consider that any criminality is possible and decides to dismiss the defendant’s complaint for lack of evidence.

What a blow to the parents, to whom the possibility of getting justice now seems so far away.

Fortunately, the lawyer decides to try to seek justice before civil court. In 2019 he sues the local Health Authoritywhose Hospital hosted the childbirth.

He seeks compensation damages to restore the parents at least for the great economic loss that involves caring for a child with special needs.

Settled damages for almost 1 million euros

Instead of waiting for the Court to issue the judgment, the parties decide to sign an out-of-court settlement. It is an agreement where the parties enter, through mutual recognition of their respective reasons, to set a figure that can be satisfactory for both of them, renouncing the claims made before the Court.

Thus in March 2020,the local Health Authority of Teramo awarded the family with compensatory damages of almost 1 millioneuros.

A compensation that can never erase the mental and physical retardation and all the problems that will emerge during the life of the little girl. But it will pay for the necessary care and treatment,giving some financial relief to the twoheartbroken parents.

A similar case compensated with 2.5 million euros

The compensation that two Tuscan parents received in 2016 is much higher. Again, the gynecologist of the hospital to whom the mother-to-be had turned to give birth, had waited too long before giving birth to her daughter. He had also waited several hours for the anesthesiologist on duty to enter service, causing the child to be asphyxiated, which was then found at birth in encephalopathy with spastic tetraparesis and epilepsy.

In this case, at the end of the judgment before the Court, the family was compensated with a whopping 2.5 million euros.