A jury in a birth injury case awarded $8.45 million to a boy who suffered severe injuries after an eight-minute delay in inserting a breathing tube.
The jury found that medical personnel at Northeast Georgia Medical Center did not follow the proper standards of care when the boy was born in 2008.
Jakob Medley, now age five, went without a needed breathing tube for eight minutes because the neonatal resuscitation team at the hospital was occupied and medical personnel failed to call for a backup team. According to court documents, a physician was never called, despite the fact that fetal monitoring showed a lack of oxygen and a possible need for an early delivery by cesarean section.
Jakob suffers from developmental delays, cerebral palsy, seizures and disfigurement. He cannot talk or walk, and he must be fed through a tube in his stomach. The family’s attorneys said that the verdict will ensure that the care the boy will need throughout his life will be paid by the hospital and its insurance company, not by taxpayers.
The family’s attorneys said that in a large hospital, there was no excuse for failing to have a backup team available and to follow standards of medical care.