$29M verdict in negligence suit against Wis. midwife

The Minneapolis firm Goldenberg Lauricella obtained a $29 million medical malpractice verdict following a finding of negligence by a certified nurse midwife involving a baby in distress. The verdict, believed to be the largest in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, history, was announced last month in Hudson.

“It truly was an honor and a privilege to tell our clients’ story and seek justice on their behalf,” commented Noah Lauricella, partner at Goldenberg Lauricella, PLLC. “The experience is something to be treasured, and our firm is grateful for the opportunity to represent such incredible people.”

A certified nurse-midwife was monitoring the lead plaintiff’s labor and delivery. The baby’s heart rate dropped from the 150s to the 60s. No one present in the hospital could perform an emergency delivery. But the midwife did not contact an on-call obstetrician-gynecologist when the heartrate initially plummeted.

In their lawsuit, Breauanna Jennings et al. vs. Robyn Cox CNM et al., plaintiffs argued that the child, August Jennings, was born almost an hour after the standard of care required the certified nurse midwife to contact the OB/GYN. The child had three Apgar scores of 0 during the first 10 minutes of his life, meaning he needed immediate medical care. After more than two weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit, the child was released.

However, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after presenting with significant injuries. The child will require lifetime supervised care. He is limited in his movements, cannot speak, and had a gastrostomy tube inserted surgically into the stomach.

The child’s parents alleged that the certified nurse midwife was negligent. Lauricella, along with Stuart Goldenberg, Ethan Adams, and Cyle Hartwig, got to work wading through copious amounts of information.

“The biggest challenge of the case was the sheer amount of information involved,” Lauricella said. “Nine experts testified just during our case in chief, and there were volumes of medical records to digest and master.”

Those experts helped convince the jury to find for the plaintiffs. “Expert testimony interpreting the medical records was critical to demonstrating the breach of the standard of care in this case, as it allowed us to walk the jury through the timeline of the day demonstrating not only when the standard of care required a call to the on-call physician but also what would have occurred had that call been made at that time,” Lauricella explained.

“We were able to utilize available scientific literature to provide a framework for our experts to not only point to the delayed delivery as a cause of the baby’s injuries but also to help rule out other potential causes,” Lauricella added. “By meeting the potential causes proffered by the defense head-on, we directly pointed the jury to the negligence of the certified midwife as causational of the injuries suffered.”

Providing the jury a theme, and sticking with that theme, was paramount, Lauricella asserted, in arriving at the verdict.

“Theming, theming, theming,” Lauricella said. “Our team was able to provide the jury with a consistent theme throughout the trial that simplified complex issues while tying things together from opening statement through closing argument.”

The total verdict was $29,070,051. That includes $14 million for future medical and care expenses; $10 million for future pain, suffering, disability and disfigurement; and $2 million for past and future loss of society and companionship.

Lauricella said that he was happy that “we were able to bring justice to this family and assist in making sure August Jennings will receive all of the support he needs throughout his life.” He expressed hope that the verdict would help others avoid similar injuries in the future.

“We are exceedingly grateful to this family for allowing us to tell their story,” Lauricella said. “Their strength and love for one another motivated us to fight for justice on their behalf, and we are forever grateful for the trust they placed in us to be their advocates.”

The firm Leib Knott Gaynor in Milwaukee, which represented the midwife and Hudson Physicians S.C., had no comment.