Jury Awards $34M

By: Steve Lash, The Daily Record 

A Baltimore County Circuit Court jury awarded nearly $34 million to the parents of a boy who suffered severe brain damage after being delivered by emergency C-section at 23 weeks despite no actual indication of fetal distress.

The award is expected to be reduced to $25.2 million due to Maryland’s statutory cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.

According to the complaint, Tara Anderson was misdiagnosed as being in preterm labor and fetal distress after reporting to the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson on Dec. 13, 2018, complaining of lower abdominal cramping and back pain. Medical tests administered to Anderson at the time indicated no signs of labor or placental abruption, the complaint stated.

“Indeed, the operative note indicates that the patient had no further documented contractions after her admission to the labor and delivery floor,” the complaint added. “It is not uncommon for a patient with a cervical insufficiency to experience back pain, abdominal cramps or Braxton-Hicks-like contractions/uterine irritability. Such a presentation, however, is not to be confused with actual contractions or premature labor.”

The hospital and attending physician, Eshanjit Sapra, have maintained that the C-section was medically necessary.

The complaint stated that shortly after the FINISH READING HERE

More News from Timonium

• "Like A Blue Crab Of The Chesapeake"
• Meet Parker: Garage Robot