$8 Million Medical Malpractice Birth Injury Settlement

Attorneys David J. Pritchard and Patrick A. Salvi II of the law firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, P.C., obtained an $8 million medical malpractice settlement on behalf of a child who suffered a brain injury during birth.

In the early morning on September 22, 2005, Maria Rojas entered St. Anthony Hospital in labor. An OB Triage nurse immediately began electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) to determine the status of the fetus. The EFM immediately showed signs of fetal compromise including minimal variability and an absence of fetal heart rate accelerations. This was missed by the OB Triage nurse and by the Nurse Midwife assigned to supervise OB Triage. Over the next several hours the EFM worsened to include late decelerations which continued to go unrecognized and unreported by the OB Triage nurses until the fetal heart rate became bradycardic and the House OB called for an emergency c-section. The baby was born with profound brain damage. Dr. Patel, the attending OB, denied any knowledge of the deteriorating EFM. The Defendants claimed the baby’s brain was damaged prior to entering the hospital due to maternal immunologic reaction as evidenced by a placenta with chronic villitis, multiple infarcts and severe lymphocytic intervillositis. The Defense dated the fetal insult to one or two months prior to admission based on a body-wide rash the mother suffered at that time.

[JORGE ROJAS, a minor, by his parents and next Friends, LEONEL ROJAS and MARIA ROJAS; and LEONEL ROJAS and MARIA ROJAS, Individually, Plaintiffs, vs. CATHOLIC HEALTH PARTNERS SERVICES, an Illinois Corporation d/b/a ST. ANTHONY HOSPITAL; MUKESH PATEL, M.D., and MUKESH PATEL, M.D., S.C., an Illinois Corporation. Defendants.]