$10 Million Settlement of Arizona Birth Injury Case

Attorneys Daniel S. Weinstock, G. Scott Vezina, and Carolyn M. Chopko obtained a $10 million settlement* on behalf of the family whose son suffered severe brain damage as a result of a defendant-hospital’s failure to timely treat the child’s non-reassuring fetal heart rate tracings. This may be the largest ever pre-trial medical malpractice recovery in the region. The defendant-hospital insisted on confidentiality as a term of the settlement.

This case arose when the baby’s mother was admitted for ruptured membranes during the third trimester of pregnancy. She had a confirmed breach presentation and needed a cesarean section.

Shortly after electronic fetal monitoring was instituted, the fetal heart rate tracing showed evidence of the bradycardic heart rate, which the treating nurse failed to recognize. As a result of this nurse’s delay in the failure to recognize the non-reassuring fetal heart rate trace, the child suffered a significant injury to the basal ganglia part of his brain, and at birth was diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. As a result of his birth injury, the child has developed cerebral palsy. While he is able to ambulate and communicate, he will never live alone and will dependent on others for the remainder of his life for his activities of daily living.

Attorneys Weinstock and Vezina are very proud of the recovery secured on behalf of this family, who should now be able to provide for all of this child’s medical and related care needs for as long as he lives.

*Attorneys Weinstock and Vezina handled this case on a pro hac vice basis, which is when lawyers not licensed in a particular state associate with a lawyer who is licensed in that state and obtain the court’s permission to jointly represent a client in a specific matter.