Lopez v. New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation

March 13, 1998

RESULT: Jury verdict awarding $ 14,507,000.00, all to the infant plaintiff. The jury found defendants 100% liable. The award consisted of the following: Pain & Suffering to date: $ 1,250,000.00; Future Pain & Suffering: $ 8,000,000.00; Impairment of Earnings: $ 1,000,000.00; Future Medicals, to age 21: $ 1,920,000.00; Future Medicals, beyond age 21: $ 1,920,000.00; Medical Expenses to date: $ 417,000.00

STATE: New York

SUMMARY: The infant plaintiff was the first child of a 33-year-old primigravida who had been followed by the OB/GYN Clinic at Harlem Hospital throughout the pregnancy, which had been uneventful. At about 38 weeks (near full term) the mother's membranes ruptured on November 26, 1992 at around 9:40 p.m. She went to Harlem Hospital, where she was admitted in the early morning of November 27th, for delivery of her child. Labor was desultory until the introduction of Pitocin at 9 a.m.

All remained within normal limits until 12:35 p.m., when variable decelerations began to show up on the Fetal Heart Strips and were noted in the Hospital Record. Over the course of the next two hours, persistent variable decelerations were repeatedly noted in the Record, lengthening in duration and with Fetal Heart rates deepening as time progressed. The Fetal Heart Rate became tachycardic before decelerations and less reactive on its return to baseline, indicating a loss of Fetal reserve and Hypoxic stress. Oxygen was administered to the mother, repositioning was tried, and Pitocin was discontinued, all to no avail. The record indicated a suggestion to perform a Scalp pH test on the infant, which was never done.

The Hospital Record indicated that an "Urgent" Cesarean Section was called at 2:30 p.m., and the Mother was in the operating Room by 2:45. The baby was surgically delivered at 3:12 p.m. - flaccid, floppy, cyanotic, and with Apgar scores of 0 at 1 minute, 0 at 5 minutes, and 2 at 10 minutes after feverish resuscitation by Pediatricians.

Plaintiffs alleged that Harlem Hospital, through its Attending Physician and the 3rd Year Resident monitoring the Labor: failed to adequately monitor and interpret the Fetal Heart Monitoring Strips so as to recognize the signs of hypoxic stress upon the infant; failed to perform a timely C-Section, i.e. before 2 p.m.; and failed to perform the C-Section on an Emergency, rather than "Urgent", basis.

The Hospital contended that the Fetal Heart Strips did not reveal any indication of Fetal Distress; the C-Section was performed in a timely manner; there was no indication to perform this C-Section on an Emergency, rather than "Urgent", basis; the Doctors were exercising sound medical judgment in letting the second stage of labor run its course for as long as they did; and that the damage suffered by the infant was caused not by over two hours of hypoxic stress, but rather by a complete blockage of the umbilical cord during the 15 to 17 minutes of the operation itself (while the infant was necessarily off Fetal Monitoring), which could not have been foreseen and was not their fault.