The plaintiff mother repeatedly called the defendant nurse at her prenatal-care provider reporting pain which she believed to be the onset of labor. The woman was at twenty-eight weeks gestation. After her third call she was told to go to a hospital. When she arrived, she was found to be fully dilated and her labor could not be stopped.

The woman delivered twin boys. One was born healthy, but the plaintiff child here suffers spasticity and partial paralysis. The plaintiff claimed that the injuries were due to intraventricular bleeding due to his premature birth. The plaintiff claimed that the mother’s complaints were not properly addressed during her phone calls. The plaintiff claimed that the mother’s complaints should have communicated to her doctor and that she should have been immediately hospitalized.

The nurse claimed that the complaints were communicated to the physician, but the physician claimed that he did not receive any report of the mother’s complaints and contended that he would have hospitalized the mother if he had been informed of her symptoms.

According to a published account a $2,235,000 settlement was reached. This included $1,235,000 from the insurer for the prenatal-care provider and $1 million from the nurse’s insurer.

With permission from Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts; Lewis Laska, Editor, 901 Church St., Nashville, TN 37203-3411, 1-800-298-6288.