Birth Injury Lawsuit Over Wrongful Death Results in $4.3M Verdict

A Georgia couple has been awarded $4.3 million in damages through a medical malpractice lawsuit filed over the death of their infant son, after the jury found that negligent medical treatment caused the baby to suffer a birth injury due to a failure to take adequate steps to prevent the mother from going into labor months early. 

The verdict came in a complaint filed by Katherine and Lester Dean, who alleged that two obstetricians from the Central Georgia Women’s Health Center were responsible for the death of their son, Charles Dean, after Katherine went into labor just 23 weeks and four days into her pregnancy.

Charles Dean weighed just a little more than a pound at birth, and died two days later because his organs were not developed enough to support him.

According to allegations raised in the birth injury lawsuit, the Dean’s doctors could have prevented the premature labor with the placement of a cerclage, which is a suture of the cervix that is able to stay in place until time for a full term delivery. Attorneys for the family argued at trial that the obstetricians failed to intervene or take additional actions when the mother began to show signs of premature labor.

Following trial, the jury awarded the couple $4.3 million in pain and suffering, medical expenses and other damages, with $3.5 million awarded for loss of the baby, $200,000 for the child’ pain and suffering, $600,000 for pain and suffering for Katherine Dean, and additional amounts for medical bills and funeral expenses.

According to an article by the Daily Report, evidence presented during the trial indicated that Katherine had previously had a surgical procedure that affected her cervix and two prior miscarriages. Attorneys for the couple argued that her medical history should have been a sign for the two doctors that she needed additional attention and care during the pregnancy.

Doctors ordered additional ultrasounds to measure the length of Katherine’s cervix but failed to follow through when signs of trouble developed. An expert witness, an obstetrician from Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, testified that the doctors were correct to perform the ultrasound but did not follow through as they should.

Attorneys for the medical providers argued that the doctors were not negligent by choosing not to perform a cerclage and claimed that the sutures would not have held. However the plaintiff’s cited Katherine’s delivery of a healthy baby girl in 2009 after her new doctors took precautionary steps, including a cerclage plus progesterone injections and other treatments.

Dean gave birth to a healthy baby girl 34 weeks into her pregnancy by cesarean section. Although still premature, the plaintiff’s attorney argued that had the precautionary steps taken by the doctor’s in 2009 been implemented on August 1, 2007, Charles Dean would have been born healthy from a full term pregnancy.