Providers, Patient Settle for $7M for Allegations of Failure to Respond to Fetal Distress

​Representatives for an Illinois infant who suffered permanent and disabling injuries after doctors allegedly delayed in responding to concerns of fetal distress have settled with the providers for $7 million, according to an article in the October 2022 Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements & Experts.

The plaintiff's mother was admitted to the labor and delivery unit in the early morning at 36.5 weeks of gestation. About five hours after her admission, the fetal heart rate was lost; nearly an hour after the last heart rate was recorded, the defendant physician was called to place internal monitors. The physician stated that she was on rounds and would come to the room when rounding was finished; approximately a half hour later, a nurse entered the patient's room and found that the baby had been born and was on the mother's bed, between her legs, cold and not crying. Despite the providers' intervention, the infant suffered numerous...