Top Medical Malpractice Personal Injury Settlements

$40.35 Million Confidential Settlement Over a Missed Ribcage Finding That Let a Child's Cancer Reach the Spinal Canal

A South Carolina family reached a confidential $40.35 million settlement, structured under a high-low agreement, after radiologists reading a newborn's early chest X-rays missed a ribcage deformity that turned out to be a sign of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that grew into the child's spinal canal and caused permanent paralysis before it was caught.

After trial: The settlement is confidential. No court, case number, or plaintiff name has been made public, and the claim that this is the largest personal injury settlement in South Carolina history comes from the firm rather than from independent verification.

$40 Million Settlement for Child Left with Catastrophic Brain Injury After PICC-Line Procedure at Highland Park Hospital

A 12-year-old girl suffered permanent, catastrophic brain damage after cardiac arrest during a PICC-line procedure at Highland Park Hospital, and Power Rogers secured a $40 million settlement that the Jury Verdict Reporter identified as the largest-ever Cook County recovery for a brain-injured minor.

$32.5 Million Settlement for Boy Left with Severe Brain Injury After Reading Hospital Birth

Ross Feller Casey secured a $32.5 million settlement against Reading Hospital after its labor and delivery team failed to recognize signs of intra-amniotic infection and delayed a C-section, leaving a boy born in 2018 with permanent hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

$30 Million Settlement After Surgeon Performed 25 Experimental Procedures on an Infant

Romanucci and Blandin recovered $30 million for a family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after a pediatric surgeon at Rush University Medical Center performed 25 experimental surgeries, severing the child's pulmonary artery during the final operation.

Xbox Designer Paralyzed After Overlake Hospital Missed Spinal Fracture Four Times: $20 Million Settlement

August de los Reyes, head of design for Microsoft's Xbox, was left permanently paralyzed from the chest down after Overlake Hospital staff failed to diagnose his spinal fracture across four emergency visits, and Luvera Law Firm secured a $20 million settlement that also required the hospital to partner with him on patient-safety reform.

Cook County Pays $20 Million After a Toddler's Heart Stopped Unnoticed for Five Minutes Following Routine Surgery at Stroger Hospital

In December 2011 a 2-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after surgery at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County to repair an undescended testicle. Doctors and nurses did not notice that his heart had stopped for about five minutes before starting CPR. The oxygen loss left him with permanent brain damage; he cannot walk or speak and needs round-the-clock nursing care. On February 5, 2013, the Cook County Board approved a $20 million settlement of the malpractice suit his mother filed, one of the largest in county history. Timothy Ashe represented the family.

After trial: The $20,000,000 settlement was approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners on February 5, 2013, and is funded by the county. No appeal; the case resolved before trial.

Bomkamp v. Go Ends in $17.3 Million Settlement After a Splenectomy Left a Child With Permanent Brain Damage

A six-year-old girl suffered cardiac arrest and permanent brain damage when a surgeon used a morcellator he had never operated during a routine spleen removal, and the case settled for $17.3 million, the largest sum reported to the Wisconsin Law Journal in 2009.

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

Daryl L. Zaslow of Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow settled a hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy birth injury case for $17,000,000, a portion of which purchased annuities that carry guaranteed payments of $18,502,301 and anticipated payments of $28,700,273. Judge James Den Uyl approved the terms on January 3, 2025.

After trial: A court-approved structured settlement, so there is no appeal. It was funded at $17 million; the annuities guarantee $18,502,301 and are anticipated to pay $28,700,273, putting the total value between roughly $27 million and $37 million.

$15 Million Settlement After Infant Dies During Sleep Study at Boston Children's Hospital

Lubin and Meyer secured a $15 million settlement for the family of six-month-old Jackson Kekula, who suffered catastrophic brain injury after going without oxygen for more than 20 minutes during a sleep study at Boston Children's Hospital and died 12 days later.

Tripler Army Medical Center Delivery Errors Yield $11 Million Federal Settlement for Brain-Damaged Infant

Davis Levin Livingston secured an $11 million federal settlement, requiring U.S. Attorney General approval, after Tripler Army Medical Center's cascading delivery-room errors, including a misplaced oxygen tube left in place for more than forty minutes, caused a newborn to develop spastic quadriplegia and cerebral palsy.

Twice-Missed Lung Infiltrate Leads to $10.5 Million Settlement Over New Jersey Lawyer's Death

Brian Coven, a transactional attorney who spent his entire career at Sills Cummis & Gross, went to Summit Medical Group with pneumonia symptoms in January 2019 and again in February 2020, and both chest X-rays showed a lung infiltrate that went unaddressed. He was not diagnosed with cancer until after later losing weight without explanation, and he died of the disease in 2024 at age 68. His estate sued Summit Medical Group and four of its physicians in Essex County, and the group agreed to pay $10.5 million on the physicians' behalf. David Mazie of Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman represented the estate.

After trial: This was a negotiated settlement, not a litigated verdict, and no appeal followed. New Jersey's lost-chance doctrine under Scafidi v. See more

$10.5 Million FTCA Settlement for Veteran Who Lost Kidney Function After VA Prescribed Harmful Drug for Three Years

A combat veteran developed end-stage renal disease after VA physicians at Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital prescribed Naproxen for three consecutive years, ignoring repeated warnings in his own medical records that NSAIDs would damage his kidneys; the case settled for $10.5 million, the largest FTCA settlement in Missouri history.

Toddler Loses Both Feet and a Hand After 5-Hour ER Wait at Sacramento Methodist Hospital; Family Recovers $10 Million

A two-year-old girl lost both feet, her left hand, and the fingers of her right hand after Methodist Hospital staff left her untreated in the ER for five hours with a Streptococcus A infection; Moseley Collins secured a $10 million settlement, among the largest medical malpractice recoveries in California history.

Reversed Heart-Lung Machine Lines During a Boy's Open-Heart Surgery: Wisconsin's First Eight-Figure Malpractice Settlement

A 10-year-old boy was left with severe brain damage after the arterial and venous lines of a heart-lung machine were connected in reverse during open-heart surgery, and Cannon & Dunphy resolved the case for $10 million, reported as the first eight-figure personal injury settlement in Wisconsin history.

$9.5 Million Settlement After Tripler Army Hospital Surgeons Reattached Intestine Backward, Triggering Locked-In Syndrome and Death

A 31-year-old Army wife died from sepsis six weeks after surgeons at Tripler Army Medical Center reattached her small intestine backward during a gastric bypass, and the U.S. government agreed to pay her family $9.5 million.

The Clinic Documented the Signs of Abuse on Her Infant Son and Never Told Her, and Never Told the State. He Was Beaten Nearly to Death at Six Months Old.

Alexandria Orduna brought her son to a Brewer clinic repeatedly from the time he was four days old. Staff saw and documented red-flag signs of physical abuse and never told her and never reported it to the state, as Maine law requires. At about six and a half months old he was beaten so badly he nearly died. He is permanently blind and brain-injured.

After trial: Approved by the court and final at $8,000,000. A tentative figure of $10,000,000 was announced in February 2022 and widely reported at that number; the settlement actually approved and announced in August 2022 was $8,000,000, and that is the figure that stood. See more

$7.95 Million Settlement for a Newborn's Hypoxic Brain Injury

Rachel Fuerst of Henson Fuerst helped a North Carolina family reach a confidential $7.95 million settlement after a hospital's mismanaged labor and delayed delivery left their newborn with a permanent hypoxic brain injury.

$6.8 Million Hospital Settlement After a Stillbirth at 31 Weeks and the Hysterectomy That Followed

Kristen Dondero was 31 weeks pregnant and under the care of a maternal-fetal specialist when Hackensack University Medical Center sent her home on September 6, 2018 with decreased fetal movement and early labor symptoms. She returned two days later and learned her son had died in utero; the delivery that followed tore her uterus and ended in an emergency hysterectomy, blood transfusions, and further surgery under an induced coma. After five years of litigation marked by the hospital's sworn denials that any internal review of her care existed, and an Appellate Division ruling that those denials could support a fraudulent concealment claim, HMH Hospitals Corp. agreed on July 1, 2025 to pay Kristen and Andrew Dondero $6.8 million. The case against the obstetrician and his practice continued.

After trial: The $6.8 million is the hospital's share only; the claims against Dr. Abdelhak and his practice were still pending as of July 2025 and we found no reported resolution. See more

Missed Appendicitis Diagnosis at Albuquerque Clinic Leads to $6.8 Million Federal Settlement

In December 2015, a physician at First Choice Community Healthcare in Albuquerque examined a 14-year-old boy for stomach pain and fever but ordered no laboratory or imaging tests. His appendix ruptured two days later, and the septic shock that followed caused a hypoxic brain injury and acute kidney injury that left him permanently disabled after eight months in the hospital. Because the federally funded clinic's staff are treated as federal employees, the family sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. The case settled for $6.8 million in 2020, with most of the money placed in a fund for the boy's future medical care. Robert C. Gutierrez of Will Ferguson & Associates signed the complaint as an attorney of record for the family, alongside Kathryn L. Eaton of Eaton & Eaton Law PC.

After trial: This was an FTCA claim against the United States, paid from federal funds rather than a private insurance policy or the clinic's own assets, so collectability is not in question. Most of the $6.8 million was structured into a fund for the boy's future medical care rather than disbursed as a lump sum. See more

Understaffed Nursing Home Pays $3.5 Million After a Lone Aide Rolled a Two-Person-Care Resident Out of Bed and Broke Her Femur

A 69-year-old North Carolina nursing home resident who needed two staff members for all care suffered a broken femur when an understaffed facility sent one aide to move her alone, and her claim settled for $3.5 million in June 2025.