Birth Injury Claim Settled for 8.5 Million Dollars

A New Jersey family has settled their claim for birth injury compensation, after their son was brain damaged during his delivery due to a lack of oxygen.

Emily Ordonez of Bayonne, New Jersey, was admitted to the Bayonne Medical Centre on August 14 2005 after showing the first signs of labour. No complications were expected, as all the prenatal tests had indicated that this was a normal and healthy baby.

However, within a short space of time the baby’s heart rate decreased from 140 beats per minute to less than 60 beats per minute due to a compressed umbilical cord. The compression resulted in a prolonged lack of oxygen, and subsequently Emily’s baby son, Jose, is unable to see, walk or hold his head up.

The claim against Bayonne Medical Centre, the delivery room nurse, her supervisor and the obstetrician, was made on the grounds that the delivery nurse waited almost half an hour after noticing the decline in the baby’s heart beat before calling the obstetrician. He, in turn, failed to arrive for twenty minutes, and then did not commence an emergency Caesarean section operation for a further twenty minutes.

The Bayonne Medical Centre admitted liability, and the hospital’s insurance company is to pay 6 million dollars to Jose to provide for his medical care in the future, with a further 2.5 million dollar settlement being paid to Emily and her husband for their emotional pain.

Jose, now 5, still lives at home with three older siblings. He requires full time care due to suffering frequent seizures and has to be fed through a straw.