Clifford Shapiro settled a medical malpractice action arising out of injuries sustained by a baby girl at birth.
The plaintiff mother presented to the hospital past term and in labor. She was attended to by several midwives and after she was fully dilated, she began to push. After more than four hours of pushing with very slow progress, the baby was delivered vaginally. Other than swallowing some meconium and having a condition known as polycythemia (an excessive amount of red blood cells), the baby was healthy in that she had acceptable APGAR scores and was able to be discharged with her mother.
At approximately two years of age, her parents first had her evaluated by a neurologist because her speech and language was not developing appropriately. At that time she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
We claimed that the hospital was negligent for not intervening and performing a cesarean section in light of the mother's failure to adequately progress in labor. After extensive negotiations we were able to settle this matter for a substantial sum, notwithstandng the fact that there was only minimal evidence that the her neurologic condition was caused by the events surrounding her birth.