| JURY AWARDS $13.5
MILLION FOR CHILD'S CEREBRAL PALSY FROM BIRTH INJURY
 DES MOINES— A jury today awarded $13.5
million to the plaintiffs in the case of a child born with cerebral
palsy, agreeing that the hospital and doctors were negligent.
The panel of four men and four women
deliberated an afternoon and morning before rendering its verdict –
believed to be the largest award in a birth trauma case in the state’s
history.
Plaintiff’s attorney Ken Suggs quoted Helen
Keller to the jury in arguing that financial compensation would allow
four-year-old Nathanial Gardner the opportunity to learn and grow. “’As
Helen Keller said, ‘The world is full of suffering, but it is also full
of the overcoming of suffering,’” Suggs said, after the defense had
referenced the famous blind and deaf advocate for the disabled.
“It is gratifying to know patients who
receive substandard care in Iowa can expect to be reasonably compensated
for their injuries,” added Howard Janet, of Janet, Jenner & Suggs,
noting that Nathaniel will need a lifetime of care.
Defendants were Broadlawns Medical Center
and two of its employees, Dr. Larry Lindell, obstetrician, and Dr.
Robert Railey, family practitioner. Plaintiffs were Nathanial Gardner,
Debra Gardner, his mother, and Iowa State Bank, the child’s named
conservator.
The trial before Judge Michael Huppert of
the District Court of Polk County lasted 11 days. The case was filed
Oct. 5, 2004.
Debra Gardner’s pregnancy was allowed to
continue for 42 weeks, two weeks past normal, before doctors delivered
Nathaniel by C-section on Oct. 12, 2002, weighing 12 lbs., 2 oz. He was
born with severe brain injury as the result of lack of oxygen, which
could have been prevented, had hospital and medical staff followed
established standards of care, including consistent fetal heart
monitoring, according to the plaintiffs.
Janet, Jenner and Suggs is based in
Baltimore, MD, and Columbia, SC, and Ashville, NC. Among its specialty
areas are birth trauma and medical malpractice cases.
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