Aurora hospital settles $6.5 million brain damage baby lawsuit

2009-01-15 05:45:14 (GMT) (JusticeNewsFlash.com - Brain Injury, Justice News Flash)

Kane County hospital settles baby brain injury lawsuit

Beneficial news for Illinois brain injury lawyers by JusticeNewsFlash.com

Chicago, Illinois (JusticeNewsFlash.com)–An Aurora, Illinois family agrees to settle the medical malpractice lawsuit they filed against Provena Mercy Medical Center located in Aurora. A Cook County Circuit Court judge signed the medical negligence settlement agreement for $6.5 million reported the Chicago Tribune. Court documents claim Roberto Morales, Jr., born on April 7, 2001, at Provena Mercy, suffered a brain injury while doctors and nurses were delivering him.

The attending obstetrician and the labor and delivery nurses administered the drug Pitocin to the baby’s mother. Pitocin is a medication typically given to facilitate the birthing process by increasing labor contractions. The most common harmful side effects of Pitocin to the unborn baby are reduction in the baby’s heart rate and oxygen supply. The lawsuit filed against the hospital, doctors and nurses alleges they failed to respond to the baby’s distress which caused a brain injury.

Baby boy Morales had to be air transported by an emergency medical team to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, which is a higher level of care. Provena hospital and its staff was not equipped to handle critically injured neonates and babies with anoxic brain injuries. Lawyers representing Morales claim his injuries were so significant, he required care at Advocate Lutheran for a month. The legal team filed the medical negligence lawsuit in Cook County rather than Kane County because the boy received most of his life saving care at facilities in Cook County, Illinois.