Matthew D. Ports of Pfaff, Gill & Ports, Ltd. recently negotiated a $1.8 million settlement for the wrongful death of a newborn, survived by his loving mother and father. We claimed that the delivering physician and the nurses failed to identify the baby’s deteriorating condition as could be seen on the fetal monitoring strips. We believe that a c-section done at any time in the hours before delivery would have easily saved the child.
During the pendency of the case, our research revealed that in the years before this event, the defendant physician had been cited for “gross negligence” by the Illinois licensing board and the defendant hospital had disciplined him with supervision for past poor labor and delivery care. Therefore, we added a claim against the defendant hospital that they had negligently credentialed the defendant doctor and had no business delivery babies based on his extensive history.
The settlement was paid by the suburban OB/GYN and a Chicago-area hospital.