$20.6 Million Verdict for Premature Infant With Cerebral Palsy After Delayed C-Section in Baltimore
Won by Gilman & Bedigian.
A Baltimore City jury returned a $21 million verdict against MedStar Harbor Hospital after physicians failed to perform a timely emergency cesarean section during a premature delivery, causing a newborn to suffer oxygen deprivation and permanent spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.
What happened
In September 2002, Shantiah Norfleet was admitted to MedStar Harbor Hospital at 32 weeks gestation with elevated blood pressure. Labor was induced the following day. As the delivery progressed, fetal heart monitors showed falling oxygen levels in the womb, yet hospital staff delayed the cesarean section for approximately three hours. When Jaylan Norfleet was finally delivered, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
Jaylan was diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, a permanent condition that affects motor control in both legs. He uses a wheelchair and has required multiple surgeries. His cognitive function was not impaired. His parents restructured their work schedules around opposite shifts so one parent could always be present to provide care.
Attorney H. Briggs Bedigian, then of Wais, Vogelstein and Bedigian LLC, tried the case on behalf of the Norfleet family in Baltimore City Circuit Court before Judge John Philip Miller. The two-week trial centered on competing expert testimony about whether the monitoring data obligated the physicians to move to a cesarean section sooner than they did. Plaintiff experts Dr. Frederick E. Harlass and Dr. Richard L. Stokes, both OB/GYN specialists, testified that the delay was a deviation from the standard of care and directly caused Jaylan's oxygen deprivation. A neonatologist, Dr. Carolyn Crawford, addressed the resulting neurological injury. The hospital fielded its own team of specialists who maintained the care provided met applicable standards.
On July 31, 2012, the jury sided with the Norfleet family and returned a $21 million verdict. Maryland's statutory cap on non-economic damages reduced the total to $20.6 million.
Harbor Hospital appealed, but the Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the award unanimously in September 2014. Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Christopher B. Kehoe described the proceeding as 'a classic battle of the experts' and held that the jury was entitled to credit the plaintiffs' witnesses over the defense witnesses. The hospital then sought review from Maryland's highest court. In January 2015, the Court of Appeals denied that final petition, leaving the $20.6 million judgment in place.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Gilman & Bedigian
All Gilman & Bedigian proven verdicts →A Philadelphia jury returned a $182.7 million verdict, later reaching $207.6 million with interest and upheld through the Pennsylvania Superior Court in July 2025, against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a 45-minute delay in performing a C-section on a mother with a known uterine infection, leaving her child with permanent cerebral palsy.
A Philadelphia jury awarded $108.6 million to a boy who suffered permanent brain damage during a December 2018 forceps delivery at Einstein Medical Center, in a case tried by Gilman & Bedigian against Jefferson Health. Jefferson has vowed to appeal, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is already reviewing the same liability doctrines in the firm's earlier $183 million Penn Medicine verdict, so the award is far from final.
A Baltimore City jury awarded $55 million after Johns Hopkins Hospital delayed an emergency cesarean section for more than two hours following a home-birth transfer, leaving infant Enzo Martinez with permanent cerebral palsy and profound neurological injuries.
A Baltimore County jury found that University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center performed an unjustified emergency cesarean section on a mother showing no confirmed signs of labor, delivering her son at 23 weeks and causing severe brain damage that will require lifelong care.
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