In what doubtlessly sounds like a nightmare for any New York parent, a mother filed a lawsuit when the failure of health care professionals eventually resulted in the permanent brain damage of her infant son. A jury in another state awarded the mother and her child $45 million in the medical malpractice case. The suit alleged that an initial failure to diagnose a leg fracture eventually resulted in permanent brain trauma caused by abuse at the hands of the child’s father.
The mother filed the malpractice claim on her young son’s behalf. She alleges that the infant was taken to a regional medical center in 2005. Once there, doctors failed to properly diagnose the baby’s leg fracture — a fracture that had resulted, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, from abuse by the child’s father. The doctors’ oversight and failure to diagnose meant the child was sent home with his parents.
After returning home, the baby was subjected to further abuse. When the child was returned to the hospital weeks later, he was diagnosed with severe injuries to his head. It was at this point that the child’s father admitted to having grown frustrated with the baby’s crying and apparently threw him into his crib, resulting in brain damage.
The father was arrested, and shared liability for the $45 million in damages awarded in the medical malpractice lawsuit with the doctors who had failed to properly diagnose the initial leg fracture. Because of the father’s abuse and the doctors’ oversight, the resulting brain damage suffered by the child will likely require him to need costly medical treatments and health care for the rest of his life. Anyone in New York who has similarly suffered due to the fault or negligence of a health care professional has the right to explore his or her options for legal recourse by consulting with a personal injury attorney.
Source: nj.com, “Abused infant reportedly awarded $45M in malpractice settlement“, Matt Gray, Feb. 22, 2017
