The Becker Law Firm recognizes partners Michael Becker and Romney Cullers for their outstanding settlement of $6 Million on behalf of a premature baby who suffered brain injuries after being dropped on the floor by hospital personnel.
The baby boy was born by emergency Cesarean at 26 weeks of pregnancy and weighed less than two pounds. He was ejected from a transport warmer cart onto the floor during transport to the NICU shortly after delivery. When the incident occurred, the baby was being moved from the operating room to the NICU by a transport team that included a pediatrician and hospital nursing staff. Prior to transport, a protective side panel had been removed from the warmer cart.The pediatrician claimed that the panel, if in place, would have made it too difficult for her to reach into the warmer to manage the baby’s airway during transport because she was a small person and could not easily reach into the warmer. During transport, a member of the nursing staff inadvertently pushed the warmer into an obstruction in a doorway causing it to stop abruptly. The baby was then thrown from the warmer through the opening created by the missing panel and onto the floor. The baby had a rough NICU course which included significant respiratory distress and bleeding into the brain.
The child survived but now has significant neurologic deficits and requires ongoing nursing and attendant care. The defendant hospital system contended that the baby’s profound brain damage was the result of the natural progression of hemorrhage associated with extreme prematurity and likely unrelated to trauma from the fall. Proceeds from the settlement will allow the boy’s family to provide for the ongoing care he will require for the rest of his life.