Federal Tort Claims Act – Injuries at Birth

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Ariana Blanche v. United States of America

Case No.: 15-1868

Officials: BAUER and HAMILTON,Circuit Judges, and PETERSON, * District Judge

Focus: Federal Tort Claims Act – Injuries at Birth

Appellant claims under FTCA untimely and are therefore dismissed

“By examining the circumstances to determine when Latoya had enough information to know or reasonably suspect that Arianna’s injuries were caused by her prenatal care providers, we find that this case is distinguishable from E.Y. ex rel. Wallace. In E.Y. ex rel. Wallace, the plaintiff did not receive the child’s diagnosis until a year after the delivery, and had no indication that her prenatal care could have caused the child’s injury until she received the partial prenatal medical records. Here, although Latoya claims that it took a year for her to understand that Erb’s Palsy involved nerve damage, it is undisputed that when she left the hospital she knew that Arianna was diagnosed with Erb’s Palsy, that Arianna’s arm was in a sling, that Arianna had weighed 11.7 pounds at birth which caused her to become lodged in the birth canal during delivery, and that Arianna’s injury resulted from her delivery. A reasonable person would have inquired into whether the prenatal care providers caused Arianna’s injury by failing to detect Arianna’s weight beforehand and recommend a C-Section rather than a vaginal delivery. Also, similar to the plaintiff in Arteaga (who experienced the same injury), Latoya was suspicious early on that the injury was preventable, as evidenced by her meeting with an attorney within a few weeks of Arianna’s birth.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.