Kandiyohi County Jury Awards $23.2 Million to Child Left with Cerebral Palsy After Delayed Cesarean
After trial: No appeal was filed. Minnesota Lawyer reported that a separate private settlement resolved the case, so the amount actually paid is not public and may differ from the verdict.
Won by Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers.
A Kandiyohi County jury awarded $23.2 million on February 9, 2010, to a Paynesville family whose daughter was born without breathing after a labor induction and a delayed cesarean at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar. She has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, seizures and cortical impairment. The jury put 80 percent of the fault on Affiliated Community Medical Centers and 20 percent on the hospital. It was described at the time as the largest medical malpractice award in Minnesota state history.
What happened
A baby girl born at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, Minnesota, on June 6, 2007, was not breathing when she was delivered. Her mother, from Paynesville, had been induced into labor. During the delivery the baby went without enough oxygen for a prolonged period, and she was left with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, cortical impairment, other neurological difficulties and seizures. She needs a tracheostomy tube, round-the-clock nursing care and a wheelchair. She was two years old when the case went to trial in early 2010.
The family sued Affiliated Community Medical Centers, the clinic that employed the delivering family physician, and Rice Memorial Hospital, which is owned by the city. The physician was dropped as a defendant during the case because she was found to have acted as the clinic's agent.
The plaintiffs' case rested on what happened on the fetal monitor. Their team put on a fetal monitor expert who reconstructed the events of the delivery and showed the baby's heart rate falling. The family argued that the labor-inducing medication produced contractions that compressed the umbilical cord, and that the cesarean was delayed while she was in distress.
Trial began January 25, 2010, in Kandiyohi County District Court before Judge Donald M. Spilseth and ran 11 days. Edward Matonich of Hibbing led for the family, with Julie Matonich and David Arndt of Matonich & Persson and Michael Kelly of San Francisco, according to Minnesota Lawyer. David Alsop defended the clinic and hospital.
The jury returned its verdict on the evening of Tuesday, February 9, 2010. It found both defendants negligent and assigned 80 percent of the fault to Affiliated Community Medical Centers and 20 percent to Rice Memorial Hospital. The award totaled $23.2 million: $1.7 million for past medical expenses, $10 million for future medical expenses, $10 million for past and future pain, disability and emotional distress, and $1.5 million for lost earning capacity.
The defense lawyer said after the verdict that an appeal was possible. None followed. According to Minnesota Lawyer, a separate private settlement between the parties ended the case, and its terms have not been made public.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Minnesota Lawyer, 'Rodgers case team: Julie Matonich, Edward Matonich, David Arndt (Matonich & Persson)', Feb. 28, 2011·Archived copy
- 2.Park Rapids Enterprise, 'Paynesville family awarded $23.2 million in medical malpractice lawsuit', Feb. 2010·Archived copy
- 3.Grand Forks Herald, 'Doctor not sued in record $23 million Willmar malpractice case', Feb. 2010·Archived copy
- 4.Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers (firm)·Archived copy
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