Santa Fe Jury Awards $73.2 Million After OB/GYN Negligence Left Newborn Brain-Damaged at Birth
Won by Buckingham & Vega Law Firm.
A Santa Fe jury returned a $73.2 million verdict, the largest medical malpractice award in New Mexico history at the time, after finding that an OB/GYN and his clinic failed to recognize a high-risk pregnancy, leading to a prolonged birth that left an infant with permanent brain damage and a non-functional right arm.
What happened
In March 2013, Lorenza Botello gave birth to her son Jonathan at Pecos Valley Medical Center in Hobbs, New Mexico. She was 36 years old, diabetic, and carrying a baby that would weigh 11.5 pounds at delivery. Her obstetrician, Dr. Jerry McLaughlin, had estimated the baby at eight pounds and had not ordered the serial ultrasounds that guidelines call for in diabetic pregnancies with high-fetal-weight risk.
When Lorenza attempted a vaginal delivery, Jonathan's shoulders lodged behind her pelvis, a complication called shoulder dystocia. Dr. McLaughlin used a vacuum device to pull the baby free, a process that took more than ten minutes. During that time, Jonathan was deprived of oxygen. He suffered hypoxic ischemic brain injury and a torn brachial plexus nerve bundle in his right arm. His right hand does not function. Neurological damage from the oxygen deprivation is permanent, leaving him unable to live independently.
The family's attorneys, Kent Buckingham and Rick Barrera, argued at trial that Dr. McLaughlin's failures were not a single misjudgment but a pattern: no adequate ultrasounds, no referral for cesarean despite specialist recommendations from UNM Health Sciences Center, and no preparation for the foreseeable complication of shoulder dystocia in a macrosomic infant born to a diabetic mother. Dr. McLaughlin died in January 2017, before trial; his employer Pecos Valley of New Mexico, LLC defended the case.
After an eight-day trial in Santa Fe District Court, the jury awarded Jonathan $19.8 million in compensatory damages and his mother Lorenza $13.3 million for her own birth-related injuries. The jury added $40 million in punitive damages, bringing the total to $73.2 million, the largest medical malpractice verdict recorded in New Mexico at the time. No appellate reduction of the award has been reported in public records.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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