New Jersey Birth Injury Settlement Funded at $17 Million, Structured to Pay Out $26.95 Million to $37.15 Million

The mother was 32 when she became pregnant in 2019. During prenatal care, fetal ultrasounds and a prenatal MRI identified placenta percreta, the most invasive form of placenta accreta spectrum, in which the placenta grows through the uterine wall and can adhere to or penetrate the bladder. The condition carries a high risk of life-threatening hemorrhage. She went to a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for treatment.

The case turned on a date. Plaintiff's experts argued that patients with placenta accreta spectrum should be delivered by planned cesarean section between 34 weeks 0 days and 35 weeks 6 days of gestation, because waiting invites the rupture the diagnosis predicts. The defense argued that a stable patient without placenta previa can safely be carried into the 37th week, and that this mother had taken an active part in choosing her own delivery date. The cesarean was scheduled for March 11, 2020, in her 37th week.

On March 8, three days short of that date, she sustained a massive uterine rupture and a complete placental abruption. An emergency cesarean followed. The infant was deprived of oxygen in utero and sustained profound hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. She was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The mother suffered a massive hemoperitoneum, required multiple transfusions, and was admitted to the ICU.

Zaslow consulted 22 experts and served reports authored by 15 of them. His stated theory was narrower than the expert count suggests. He argued the case did not rest on fetal heart rate tracings, neuroradiology, infection, or genetics, the usual battlegrounds of a birth injury trial, but on a scheduling error.

Liability was disputed throughout. The case resolved after three days of mediation before the Honorable Joseph P. Quinn, J.S.C. (Ret.), spread across more than five months. The Honorable James Den Uyl, J.S.C. approved the terms on January 3, 2025.

The money is worth describing precisely, because a single number does not capture it. The settlement was funded at $17,000,000. Part of that bought annuities, which produce guaranteed payments to the plaintiffs of $18,502,301 and anticipated payments of $28,700,273. Add the cash paid at settlement and the total value falls between $26,952,301 and $37,150,273, depending on how long the annuitant lives. Reporting that leads with $26.95 million is quoting the guaranteed floor of a structure, not a check that was written.

Some of this case is public and some of it is not. The firm's own account names no plaintiff, no hospital, and no physician. Independent case reports go further: they identify the family by name, name the treating maternal-fetal medicine specialist as Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, and place his care at the Center for Abnormal Placentation at Hackensack University Medical Center, with the suit filed in Ocean County Superior Court. The injured plaintiff is a child, so she is not named here. A settlement is not a finding of fault, and none was made.

Zaslow's partner at the time, Frances Wang Deveney, worked the litigation with him. She has since left the firm and practices at the Killino Firm. Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow describes the result as the largest settlement reported in a birth injury case venued in New Jersey. The child was four years old when the court approved the terms.