A Nebraska jury recently awarded $1.8 million to a 3-year-old girl whose left arm is effectively paralyzed after she suffered shoulder dystocia during her June 2008 delivery.
Jurors in the birth injury case deliberated more than four hours before returning the verdict against Dr. Ann Sjulin, an Omaha obstetrician, and for the parents of Chaylee Bentzinger-Hill.
Attorneys for the young girl said the doctor made critical mistakes in delivering Chaylee, a large baby weighing in at a little more than 9 pounds, The Omaha World-Herald reported.
For one, a vacuum was used to help Chaylee through the birth canal — a move attorneys argued wasn't necessary. And when the baby's shoulder got stuck behind her mother's pelvic bone, the doctor pulled down on the baby's head — a maneuver that caused severe nerve damage.
Chaylee now has a severely disabled left arm, one that will forever be shorter than her right arm and likely of little use.
Attorneys of Ross Feller Casey, LLP has built a remarkable record of victories in Birth Injury related cases, amassing a long list of seven- and eight-figure verdicts and settlements. They include:
•$22 million verdict in a birth injury case involving blood arriving late for a transfusion
•$12 million recovery in a birth injury case
•$8 million settlement for a child who suffered a brain injury due to a delay in delivery
•$7 million recovery for a child left with cerebral palsy as a result of obstetrical negligence
•$7 million settlement for a woman who died just after delivering a baby
•$6 million settlement for an infant who suffered brain damage because a nurse midwife and nurses failed to manage fetal distress during labor
•$5.5 million recovery for a child who was brain injured at birth because an obstetrician failed to recognize signs of placental abruption
•$5.5 million settlement for the family of a 23-year-old woman who died after giving birth to her daughter
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