$9.7 Million Settlement - Medical Malpractice Causes Mother’s Loss of Small Bowel Injury and Baby’s Brain Damage

Michels & Lew represented a woman who was less than 7 months into her pregnancy when she suffered a bowel obstruction that the doctors and hospitals had failed to timely diagnose and treat. As a result, her small bowel infarcted and her unborn daughter was experiencing distress requiring an emergency Cesarean section. The mother suffered the loss of her small bowel. Her child suffered catastrophic brain damage caused by her prematurity and the distress brought upon by her mother’s bowel obstruction.

The doctors at the first hospital failed to consider a bowel obstruction and did not order an abdominal CT Scan to determine the cause of her symptoms. Instead after many days, they arranged for her transfer to another hospital. Upon receiving the patient, the doctors at the second hospital immediately suspected a bowel obstruction. However, a surgeon who consulted on the case decided that it was only a partial bowel obstruction but did not order an abdominal CT scan to confirm his diagnosis. The mother was allowed to languish in pain for another day.

The mother’s unborn baby then began to show signs of physical distress. An emergency Cesarean section was performed. During the procedure, the doctors discovered the bowel obstruction. However, the bowel was no longer viable and efforts to save it were unsuccessful. The mother will require expensive life-long medication therapy and will eventually require bowel and liver transplants. Her daughter is profoundly injured with severe cognitive disabilities and cerebral palsy.

As a direct result of the lawsuit filed by Michels & Lew, their clients were able to obtain a settlement of $9,700,000.00