Las Vegas Malpractice Lawsuit for Child’s Birth Injury Reinstated by Appeals Court

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a Las Vegas birth injury lawsuit will be able to continue, even though the mother filed the case more than four years after a medical mistake occurred during the delivery of her child.

The Court ruled that the child’s injury qualifies as brain damage or a birth defect, which allowed the mother to file the lawsuit until the child turned 10 years old.

 
The case involves allegations of a medical mistakes during and immediately after the birth of James Monroe, who was born in May 1995 at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. During an emergency Caesarean section, the baby’s head was lacerated by a scalpel.

After unsuccessfully attempting to stop the bleeding for over one hour, the infant was later transferred to Southwest Regional Neonatal Center and has been left with a brain injury.

A medical malpractice lawsuit was filed by the mother more than four years after the birth, but prior to the child’s 10th birthday.

The lower court dismissed the mothers birth injury lawsuit because it was brought more than four years after the alleged mistakes occurred, which generally means it would be barred under the Nevada medical malpractice statute of limitations in effect at that time.

However, the Nevada statute also provides that for malpractice lawsuits involving “brain damage or birth defect, the period of limitations is extended until the child attains 10 years of age.”

This week the Nevada Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s dismissal of the case, indicating that the injury does qualify as brain damage or a birth defect under Nevada law, and the case will be allowed to continue.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the case will now return to Clark County District Court for further litigation.