$58.6 Million Verdict Over a Delayed C-Section That Left a Norwalk Boy With Severe Cerebral Palsy

Cathy D'Attilo went into labor in early 2003 expecting a normal delivery. As labor progressed, her son became lodged deep in her pelvis, a complication that made a vaginal delivery increasingly dangerous and pointed toward a cesarean section. The claim brought on the family's behalf was that Dr. Richard Viscarello, the obstetrician overseeing the delivery at Stamford Hospital's Maternal-Fetal Care practice, did not move to a C-section quickly enough once that complication was apparent.

The delay, the family argued, mattered because of what was happening to the baby during it. As the difficult delivery dragged on, Daniel was cut off from an adequate oxygen supply. By the time he was born, the damage to his developing brain was done. He was diagnosed with a severe form of cerebral palsy, the kind that leaves a child unable to walk, talk, sit up, or eat without assistance. Now school-age at the time of trial, Daniel required a feeding tube and round-the-clock care, and doctors did not expect that to change.

The case went to trial twice. The first time, in Superior Court at Waterbury, the jury could not reach a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial. The D'Attilos and their attorneys, Kathleen Nastri and James Horwitz, tried the case again. The second jury did not deadlock. On May 25, 2011, it returned a verdict of $58.6 million: $8.6 million to cover Daniel's economic losses, including the cost of his lifetime medical care, and $50 million in non-economic damages for the harm done to a child who would never walk, talk, or live independently.

At the time, it was reported as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut history. The size of the award reflected less a punitive judgment against Dr. Viscarello than an attempt to put a number on what a lifetime of total-care needs actually costs: nursing, equipment, therapy, and supervision that would not end when Daniel turned 18 or 30 or 50, because the injury itself would not end.

Medical malpractice verdicts of this size are rare, and birth-injury cases in particular can be difficult for juries to sort through, since they turn on expert testimony about exactly when, during a labor that unfolds over hours, a delivery becomes a medical emergency requiring surgery. The D'Attilo verdict signaled that a Connecticut jury, presented with the full record from Cathy D'Attilo's labor, was prepared to find that a documented delay had caused the injury and to price that finding at the outer edge of what the evidence supported.

The case did not change how obstetric malpractice claims are litigated in Connecticut, but it became a frequently cited data point in the state's legal community for the scale of damages a jury will award when a birth injury results in permanent, total disability. It stood as one of the largest individual medical malpractice verdicts in Connecticut for years afterward.