$2 Million - Infant [Redacted] v. Dr. [Redacted]

In the fall of 2004, Anthony T. DiPietro once again teamed up with renowned trial attorney David L. Taback, to litigate the case of an infant who sustained trauma to his brain during his descent through his mother's birth canal. As a result of this collaborative effort, a two million dollar settlement (which represented every penny in insurance coverage that was available) was procured on behalf of the infant plaintiff.

Roger M. was born at the old [redacted] Memorial Hospital on July 4, 1992. He was the first child of his parents. Roger's mother received regular prenatal care through defendant Dr. [redacted]. Her last menstrual period was 11/16/91 giving her an estimated due date of 8/23/92.

During the prenatal period, Roger's mother was noted as having multiple fibroids in her uterus of over an inch in size, but none were noted to be blocking in the birth canal. However, on April 13, 1992, Roger's mother was admitted to Booth with preterm labor. She was administered an injection of a drug named Terbutaline to stop her contractions. Significantly, during this admission she was noted as having a 3 cm fibroid right in the cervical canal. This was the only mention of the fibroid in the mother's entire hospital chart. Her obstetrician, Dr. [redacted] was never aware of this.

Clearly, this finding was key to the entire case. The finding of a fibroid in cervical should have tipped her doctor off that a vaginal delivery was not going to be possible.

At approximately 4:30 pm on July 3, 1992, Roger's mother was readmitted to the hospital in labor. Dr. [redacted] decided at that point to augment labor without ever performing an LS/PG ratio to check for fetal lung maturity. Obviously, the reason that he failed to do so was because he felt the lungs were already mature at nearly 33 weeks - and he was actually right. However, it was later the defendant’s contention that all of this child’s injuries were due to his lungs not being developed despite the fact that an xray of his chest after birth was completely normal with no signs of premature lungs.

After a protracted labor, Dr. [redacted] decided to attempt a vacuum extraction to pull Roger from his mother's birth canal by suction. This failed on two occassions. Next, defendant [redacted] used forceps to pry the infant's head from his mother's pelvis. At 8:27 a.m. Roger was finally delivered. He was noted as having bruising over both of his eyes. At 28 minutes after birth the placenta was “manually” removed. While technically the third stage may last up to 1/2 hour, the fact that it had to be manually removed at 28 minutes was a further indication that there was an outlet obstruction caused by the fibroids in the birth canal.

On May 6, 1997 Roger had an MRI of his head at another institution which revealed periventricular leukomalacia (destruction of the white matter in the brain). The defendant's lawyers attempted to argue at trial that the child's brain damage was from prematurity. However, it was clear that the infant's brain damage was solely caused by the traumatic delivery due to the fibroid in his mother's cervical canal.