The Pacific Medical Law team of lawyers, lead by Paul McGivern and Susanne Raab, were successful at trial and in post-trial negotiations, obtaining $6.7 million for a child injured during her birth.
The child’s mother previously delivered a child by a cesarean section. When she was delivering her second child, the infant plaintiff in this lawsuit, an attempt was made to deliver the baby by vaginal delivery (a vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC). At one point in the delivery, the mother told the nurse her labour pains had changed and her pain was now constant between contractions.
During this delivery the uterus ruptured along the original caesarean section scar, and the baby was extruded into the mother’s abdomen depriving her of oxygen. At trial the judge found a nurse and a physician resident liable for the infant’s birth injuries. The judge found the nurse liable for not immediately reporting to the physician the mother’s complaint of the change in the nature of the pain. The judge found the resident who attended on the mother liable for not immediately calling for the physician on-call when she learned of the constant pain between contractions, among other things. The judge found that if the nurse and resident had met the expected standard of care, the infant would not have suffered her birth injuries.
As a result of her birth injuries the infant plaintiff suffers from permanent cognitive and physical disabilities and she will never be able to work or live independently.
https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2016/2016bcsc968/2016bcsc968.pdf