Jury Finds Bad Advice from South Shore Hospital Nurse Causes Death of Infant

September 26, 2019

BOSTON, MA — Breaking Legal News Alert — Medical malpractice attorneys Robert Higgins and Lynn Hu of Lubin & Meyer today obtained a $3.5M verdict, including interest, against a South Shore Hospital nurse for failing to properly advise the mother of a newborn with signs of an infection, resulting in the infant’s death.

Medical Malpractice Case Summary


By Attorney Robert Higgins
Plymouth Superior Court

Natalie Core was born prematurely and spent the first 98 days of her life in South Shore Hospital in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (“NICU”) and the Special Care Nursery. On December 3, 2012, Natalie Core was discharged home. The following day her mother noticed that Natalie wasn’t acting normally – Natalie was irritable, sleepy, grunting and not feeding.

Natalie’s mother called South Shore Hospital NICU (Weymouth, Massachusetts) on two occasions that afternoon. During the second phone call, the defendant nurse in the case, Laura Perkins, assured Natalie’s mother that the child was fine and to simply keep her pediatric appointment scheduled for the next day. Four hours after that second phone call, the baby was found in her crib by her parents turning blue and not breathing. She was rushed to Jordan Hospital (Plymouth) but was pronounced dead that evening at 11:15p.m. – 33 hours after being sent home from South Shore Hospital.

On autopsy, the baby was found to have a very serious but treatable bacterial infection that caused her death.

Jury verdict

The jury deliberated for 11 ½ hours over two days before returning the verdict of $3.5 million including interest.

Lubin & Meyer attorneys Robert M. Higgins and Lynn Hu represented the plaintiff at trial.

News coverage

See related news coverage of this medical malpractice verdict:

Jury: Bad advice from South Shore Hospital nurse contributed to infant’s death
The Patriot Ledger, September 27, 2019

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