Cook County Jury Awards $10.91 Million Against University of Chicago Hospitals for Delayed Cesarean

On October 31, 1988, a woman in the late stages of a high-risk pregnancy arrived at the University of Chicago Hospitals at 3:20 p.m. after her water broke. The fluid was stained brownish-mustard, a sign of meconium, and she told a triage nurse so. The fetal monitor was not attached until 3:50 p.m. It showed repeated drops in the baby's heart rate, and by 4:22 p.m. a resident had concluded the fetus was in distress.

The doctors agreed a cesarean section was needed. The chart then recorded a problem: the operating room was occupied, and the team was waiting for a second room to open. The mother was moved to a converted delivery room at about 5:00 p.m., the first incision came at 5:15 p.m., and her son was delivered at 5:20 p.m. He scored 1 out of 10 on the Apgar scale at one minute and had aspirated meconium. About twelve hours later he began having seizures. Doctors determined that his brain had been deprived of blood and oxygen around the time of birth.

By the time of trial in Cook County, the boy was 13. He has a moderate intellectual disability, functions at the level of a child of two or three, and will need 24-hour supervision for the rest of his life. His mother and Northern Trust Company, as co-guardians of his estate, sued the hospital and the physicians involved. On appeal, the court's opinion lists Philip H. Corboy, Thomas A. Demetrio and Barry R. Chafetz of Corboy & Demetrio as counsel for the plaintiffs, with Michael T. Reagan of Herbolsheimer, Lannon, Henson, Duncan & Reagan in Ottawa.

The case against the hospital rested on two failures: it had no second operating room ready when one was needed, and its triage nurse did not put the fetal monitor on early enough. Plaintiffs' experts testified that earlier monitoring and a faster delivery would have prevented or reduced the brain injury. The defense argued that the injury happened days earlier, that the 4:00 to 5:20 p.m. window was too short to have caused it, and that the delivery was timely.

The jury cleared the four individual doctors on the prenatal count but found the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics liable and awarded $10,912,500. The verdict broke down as $3,500,000 for disability, $212,500 for pain and suffering, $1,000,000 for lost earnings and $6,200,000 for caretaking and therapies. On a second count, over the child's neonatal care, the jury separately awarded $758,400 against the hospital and a neonatologist. The trial judge entered judgment and denied the hospital's motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, a new trial and remittitur.

The hospital appealed only the larger count. On December 23, 2004, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, affirmed. It held that the trial court was presented with real factual disputes about the monitor's timing and the missing operating room, and that those were for the jury to resolve. It also upheld the refusal of the hospital's three special interrogatories, finding each improper in form.