Death of 21-day-old Baby: $1.5 Million Settlement
2024 Medical Malpractice Settlement Report
By Robert M. Higgins, attorney for the plaintiff
Essex Superior Court, Massachusetts
Lawsuit blames birth injury and subsequent death on EMT failure to follow protocols for handling prolapsed umbilical cord.
Case summary
In this birth injury/wrongful death case, Lubin & Meyer was able to obtain a $1.5 million settlement via mediation, where baby suffered severe brain injury related to mishandling of prolapsed umbilical cord.
Details of the case
In September 2021, the plaintiff was expecting her first child with a due date of 9/14/21.
On 9/3/2021, at 2:45 p.m., the plaintiff’s husband called 911 and reported that his wife was pregnant, her water had broken, and the umbilical cord was coming out (prolapse). The defendant ambulance company dispatched an ALS ambulance to the plaintiff’s home and they arrived at 2:58 p.m.
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Upon quick examination, the paramedic found that the cord had prolapsed but was pulsating as it should be. The plaintiff was transported by a stair chair to a stretcher and loaded onto the ambulance. The plaintiff was positioned with her pelvis up “as high as she could tolerate it.” She was never positioned in the Trendelenburg position as is required to take any pressure of the baby off the umbilical cord.
The plaintiff arrived at the hospital at 3:24 p.m. Upon arrival the umbilical cord was noted to be non-pulsating and the baby’s heart rate was in the 60’s. The plaintiff was brought immediately to the OR for an emergency c-section. Unfortunately, the baby was born with a severe brain injury from lack of oxygen and passed at 21 days-of-life.
The plaintiff retained expert witnesses in emergency medicine and obstetrics. It was determined that there are state protocols on how to handle a prolapse cord by EMT/Paramedics. The standards require mom to be transferred the entire trip to the hospital in the Trendelenburg position. Further it required the EMT/Paramedic to insert their fingers inside mom and manually hold the baby in a manner which keeps the baby from lying on the umbilical cord. This ensures that the baby receives proper blood flow until delivery can occur. The evidence here was that the EMT/Paramedic violated these protocols in this case. It was the experts’ opinion that had the EMT/Paramedic acted appropriately, the child would not have been subjected to lack of oxygen on the ride to the hospital and would have been born without any injury.
The parties mediated the case which resulted in the case settling for $1,500,000.
Lubin & Meyer attorneys Robert M. Higgins and Andrew C. Meyer, Jr. represented the plaintiff in this lawsuit.
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