A Minnesota couple whose baby was born with significant brain damage is suing Regions Hospital and HealthPartners claiming that medical staff failed to provide adequate medical care and interventions to the mother and her son during labor and delivery.
John Richardson and Leotha Pinkney filed the malpractice lawsuit in Ramsey County District Court Tuesday.
The suit seeks monetary damages from both the St. Paul hospital and Health Partners, which operates the hospital, to cover what are expected to be the child’s ongoing medical and care costs. It also seeks damages to account for the emotional relationship the boy’s disabilities will deprive him of having with his parents.
In essence, the couple is alleging that hospital staff should have done more to intervene when the baby’s fetal heart rate monitor indicated signs of distress and advised the mother that delivery via cesarean-section was necessary to protect the child’s health.
The couple’s Maryland-based attorney, Stephen Offutt, declined to comment on the pending litigation, as did a communications consultant for HealthPartners.
As of Thursday morning, the company had yet to file an answer to the lawsuit.
According to the suit:
The boy was born Nov. 8, 2016 after his mother labored for more than 20 hours.
She had a “relatively uncomplicated pregnancy” aside from a kidney infection in her second trimester, the suit said.
Pinkney’s membranes ruptured around midnight Nov. 8, 2016 — seven days before her due date — and she was admitted to Regions Hospital shortly thereafter.
Having previously delivered a child via cesarean section, Pinkney indicated to staff that she’d like to try to deliver vaginally this time around, and staff agreed.
Staff started Pitocin shortly thereafter to induce labor and proceeded to adjust the levels — mainly increasing them — administered to the mother over the next several hours.
As labor progressed, medical staff noted fluctuations in the baby’s heart rate — including periods where it fell below baseline, once for about nine minutes — but continued to give the mother Pitocin to advance her vaginal delivery, the suit said.
At some point, doctors also noted that the mother’s temperature and pulse were increasing and diagnosed her with a bacterial infection called Chorioamnionitis. She was given two rounds of antibiotics to treat the infection during labor.
It was around then that staff discussed with Pinkney the need to have special care nursery staff present at her delivery.
About three hours later, Pinkney gave birth to a limp 7-pound, 8-ounce baby boy and special care nursery staff immediately started resuscitation.
While successful, the infant sustained permanent injuries to his brain due to hypoxia — lack of oxygen — he endured during his birth, according to the suit.
The now 15-month old has been diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, Microcephaly, physical and developmental delays and suffers from permanent neurological injuries, seizures and a host of other medical challenges, the suit says.
“As a direct and proximate result of the … deviations from the applicable standard of care by Regions Hospital and HealthPartners … (the child) was caused to sustain severe, painful, permanent and disabling injuries,” the suit says.
In specific, it alleges that staff failed to properly recognize that the child’s heart was showing signs of distress, and therefore failed to properly respond to them or advise his mother that she should abandon her vaginal birth plan and undergo an emergency cesarean-section.
“Had (staff) appropriately counseled and informed (Pinkney) of the material risks, benefits and alternatives of the various treatment options and courses of treatment given her presentation, (she), like any reasonable person, would have elected to undergo a cesarean section in a timely manner,” it reads.
If she had, or proper intervention had taken place earlier to address the child’s lack of oxygen in-utero, the mother would have delivered a healthy baby boy, the suit infers.
The couple, who the suit says are residents of Scott County, could not be reached for comment.