CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN
A Cook County jury awarded $14,000,000 to a child born after 19 hours of labor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Evidence in the three-week medical malpractice and birth injury trial showed that the obstetrician delayed delivery and ultimate C-section despite signs that the baby’s fetal heart rate was in distress. The hospital also violated its written policy on use of Pictocin after the mother developed excessive contractions, or tachystole. As a result, the baby experienced a partial prolonged hypoxia– lack of oxygen in his brain– and brain damage before his birth.
Christopher T. Hurley and Mark R. McKenna represented the Hill family.
“It’s really a bittersweet result because while the family is happy that the jury has rendered a just result, they still have a brain-damaged child,” Hurley said.
