A jury outside Louisiana recently awarded a child more than $50 million. However, the situation may not yet be resolved, as the defendant has filed for mistrial. In a rather strange development, the attorney for the plaintiff is being accused of evoking Nazi-related sentiments in the closing arguments of the birth injuries case.
The award, if it stands, is the highest of its kind in the county where the case was heard. The child in question in now age 12, and the medical malpractice situation apparently involved a failure to perform a needed cesarean section when he was born. It was alleged that because of substandard care and negligence, he suffered permanent brain injury.
The hospital in question said that it has great sympathy for the boy’s condition. However, it claims that his brain injury was caused by some sort of infection before birth, rather than medical negligence. Two separate motions for mistrial were reportedly submitted to the court.
Hospital spokespersons said they strongly disagree with the birth injuries verdict rendered by the jury, and think the jury was wrongly influenced by the inflammatory statements of the plaintiff’s attorney. In Louisiana and all other states, injured medical patients may be able to seek compensation for damages by filing claims similar to the one presented on this child’s behalf. A first logical step to take in the process is to allow an experienced attorney to investigate the situation to help document the details of the events that led to an injury and determine how best to present the case in court.
Source: fox32chicago.com, “Illinois jury awards 12-year-old $53M in birth injury case”, June 30, 2016
