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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2009 > July > 06
Monday, July 6, 2009
$31 million verdict against hospital negated by settlement agreement
DAYTON — Last week’s $31 million verdict against Miami Valley Hospital could be the largest jury award for a medical malpractice case in Ohio history, though a settlement agreement makes it unlikely the hospital will have to pay that much.
As the jury was deliberating Thursday afternoon, July 2, after a four-week trial before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Timothy O’Connell, attorneys for the hospital and the family of Leondo Stanziano worked out a settlement agreement, plaintiffs’ attorneys Richard Lawrence and Patrick J. Beirne confirmed Monday, July 6.
“All disputes between the parties have been resolved,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence and Beirne said the verdict is the largest medical malpractice award they could find in Ohio. The last big medical malpractice case in Montgomery County resulted in an $8 million award last year, they said.
Lawrence and Beirne said the agreement is confidential and they could not discuss the details. They expect the case to be finished in the next 30 to 40 days, they said.
The agreement will end the case, eliminating any appeals or punitive damages, which were to be decided later, Lawrence said.
Beirne said that nearly $26 million of the jury’s award was for future medical care for the boy, now 8, who was born Dec. 11, 2000 at the hospital.
He suffered “permanent, irreversible brain damage,” during his birth, according to the complaint filed by his family in 2006.
The lawsuit also identified Dr. Kedrin E. Van Steenwyk and Contemporary Obstetrics and Gynecology as defendants, but the jury found that neither was liable for what happened to the boy.
The boy’s mother, Renetha, was a VBAC patient, meaning she would deliver the boy vaginally, though she had previously had a Caesarian section. That meant she was at a higher risk for a ruptured uterus during labor, which occurred, Lawrence said.
At that point, the mother’s body stopped providing oxygen through the placenta, though the boy was still inside her. He probably went 18 to 20 minutes without oxygen, Lawrence said.
The hospital staff, which knew Renetha Stanziano was a high-risk patient, erred by failing to monitor the labor properly, by failing to diagnosis the hyper-stimulation of her uterus, by inappropriately using the drug Pitocin and by not telling the attending physician of her “inappropriate contraction pattern,” according to the complaint.
The nurses continued to give her Pitocin, even as her contractions escalated to unsafe levels, and “they blew the uterus apart,” Lawrence said.
The boy, called “Leo,” has severe cerebral palsey. He uses a feeding tube. He cannot speak, is not ambulatory and has trouble holding anything in his hands,” Lawrence said. Though Leo is badly disabled, he is alert and can recognize family members. When he needs something, he communicates by kicking, Lawrence said.
Leo will never be able to work, and Renetha and her husband Douglas are now “24-7 health-care givers,” Lawrence said. After Leo’s birth, Renetha stopped attending college and quit her job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to take care of the boy, Lawrence said.
Hospital officials could not be reached for comment Monday. On Friday, President and Chief Executive Mary Boosalis said “Miami Valley Hospital is concerned for every patient under our care and we recognize the heartache of this tragic situation. We respectfully disagree with the jury’s decision and continue to support the work of our professional staff.”
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