Birth Injury Case - 14 years later

Dear Community, Asking these life altering questions, hoping for some good information.

My two boys were brain damaged at birth by our Obstetrician by Pitocin abuse during induced labor at their birth. I have spent years researching it and I have tried to explain it to lawyers. However the boys did not have a Neonatal ICU stay (hypoxic brain damage), and somehow, that seems to be the gold standard, as to whether lawyers can take up the case or not. My boys are non-verbal and almost retarded due to traumatic brain damage suffered from the Pitocin labor abuse ( remember babies emerge head first from the mother - exposing them to force brain trauma from induced contractions).
I have heard from lawyers that a case like this costs over 100k to file properly, without gaurantee of returns. That seems to be the main hurdle to lawyers taking up my case.
I have also offered to make that payment and I still havent been successful in getting them to bite.
I have proof of widespread traumatic brain damage, from MRI scan and I cant really give up having been wronged/ruined so much by this Obstetrician.
I am now toying with the idea of taking up the case myself and would like to know the following.

1) The ACOG.org (American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) provides guidance to hospitals on labor induction protocols. They dont publish this, for fear of repercussions. How can I as a private citizen have them provide that information to me officially, for use in the lawsuit.
2) Will the hospital disclose their labor induction protocols, the boundary conditions and why they exist, based on a filed lawsuit against them?
3) Where can I get information on any cases in the past that might have been 'settled' out of court on this topic.
4) How can I get guidance on how to go about a birth injury lawsuit on my own without a lawyer, although I am still open to getting a lawyer if I can find someone.
Adding my son's MRI report here
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I can sympathize with your situation but if you are at your wits end which I understand, why would you come here to post this? You will need a large firm with large resources to handle such a case and I would imagine you generally only have 3 years to file. If it is passed that then you probably should reconsider things. The hardest thing in law is to get medical doctors to testify against other doctors in these types of cases. Generally doctors won't even deal with you if you have an attorney. My suggestion would be to search for firms that handle cases on a larger scale in several states not just yours. These firms have the resources to put on a case if they feel that they will win. You having trouble finding an attorney signals to me that they think your case will cost more than any potential recovery and thus they don't want to handle it.

Lots of medical malpractice firms out there, how many have you called and what kind of feedback are your getting? I have had attorneys recommend other attorneys who have taken the case. If your visit results in a turn down then ask for referrals to someone who would.
 
@Redemptionman , thanks for your comments. The Lawyers I talked to, did say I have until the kids are 18 years old, to file a case in Ohio, plus if they are mentally incapacitated, then it can be even later. So I believe time limits are not an issue.
Also, I believe labor induction abuse limits are established based on previous experience / law suits and such. The labeling on the Pitocin drug also clearly states the contraindications and adverse effects of brain injury. Would it be possible for me to obtain the data from the FDA as to what led to such labelling. Medical doctors cant deny the FDA approved labeling. What do you think?
 
Dinesh said:
@Redemptionman , thanks for your comments. The Lawyers I talked to, did say I have until the kids are 18 years old, to file a case in Ohio, plus if they are mentally incapacitated, then it can be even later. So I believe time limits are not an issue.
Also, I believe labor induction abuse limits are established based on previous experience / law suits and such. The labeling on the Pitocin drug also clearly states the contraindications and adverse effects of brain injury. Would it be possible for me to obtain the data from the FDA as to what led to such labelling. Medical doctors cant deny the FDA approved labeling. What do you think?
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whether you have an attorney or not, you will still need to pay an expert doctor to review all the medical records and say that there is a medical basis for a malpractice lawsuit in order to file.
 
specifically a Life Care Planner who is sometimes a licensed medical professional which is better if you can find one. Yes, caps do make it harder and harder for PI victims to take cases to trial since most of any award would be eaten up by fees.

Good Luck with it.
 
Dinesh said:
Dear Community, Asking these life altering questions, hoping for some good information.

1) The ACOG.org (American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) provides guidance to hospitals on labor induction protocols. They dont publish this, for fear of repercussions. How can I as a private citizen have them provide that information to me officially, for use in the lawsuit.
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Since it is a private organization, the only way to force the organization to provide those records to you would be by subpoena after the lawsuit is filed.

Dinesh said:
2) Will the hospital disclose their labor induction protocols, the boundary conditions and why they exist, based on a filed lawsuit against them?
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It matters whether the hospital is a private hospital or a government run hospital. I also matters in which state this occurred. If it was a government hospital there may be open records laws you can use to get the information from a public hospital before filing the lawsuit. Otherwise, again the answer is by issuing a supoena to the hospital after the lawsuit is filed.

Bear in mind that what you need are the standards of the medical profession at the time of your children's births. The standards used today may be different, and that would not help you in your lawsuit. Note, too, that chances are the hospital itself won't be liable. Most hospitals do not hire doctors as their employees. Instead, the doctors are independent contractors who have contracted to provide their services to the hospital.

Dinesh said:
3) Where can I get information on any cases in the past that might have been 'settled' out of court on this topic.
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Realistically, you won't get that information because nearly all such settlements will include a nondisclosure provision preventing the parties from revealing the details of the settlement to others. Moreover, that information would not be something you can use in court in your case anyway.

Dinesh said:
4) How can I get guidance on how to go about a birth injury lawsuit on my own without a lawyer, although I am still open to getting a lawyer if I can find someone.
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These cases are highly technical and require you to get medical experts to testify as to the cause of your kids' disabilities. In many states there are special rules you need to follow even before filing a medical malpractice claim in court and there may be other special rules that apply to these cases as well. Realistically, you will have a very hard time pursuing this on your own when the doctor and hospital will have very experienced lawyers opposing you. You'd also need to see if in your state you would be allowed to represent your kids in this kind of case. You may be required to have a lawyer to do it to avoid unauthorized practice of law issues. That will depend on the applicable state law.

At a minimum I'd think you'd need the basic legal education lawyers have, e.g. the equivalent of 3 years of full time law schoo. And even that doesn't fully prepare you to litigate these kinds of specialized cases. I've been a lawyer for many years and I wouldn't touch one of these cases. I don't have the specialized knowledge and experience that these cases require. If I were a parent with kids that have the kinds of issues your kids have, I'd find a medical malpractice lawyer to handle it for me.

Bear in mind one critical thing: a bad outcome does not necessarily mean anyone was negligent. Sometimes bad outcomes occur even when everything was done correctly. This is one of the reasons expert testimony is so important. You have to prove not only the injury but that the doctor was negligent and that the doctor's negligence was the cause of the injuries.
 
Redemptionman said:
Yes, caps do make it harder and harder for PI victims to take cases to trial since most of any award would be eaten up by fees.
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(Underlining added.)

You're still wrong in your statement about this. I've gone over that before with you. You seem to overinflate what these costs will be.

First of all, the caps on awards do not apply to awards for compensation for the actual damages. Rather, the caps apply to pain and suffering awards, punitive damage awards, or other noneconomic damages. Moreover, most lawyer's fees in these cases are contingent fees, which means the lawyer only gets paid a portion of any successful award. It's true that bringing a small med mal case is not economically worthwhile, but it is not the case that most of any award would be eaten up by fees. Successful plaintiffs do get most of the lot of benefit of a case that has significant damages. These cases can be expensive to litigate and thus truly low value cases are not worth bringing.

But assuming a signficant damage award the plaintiff does get a substantial benefit. Even if they don't get much cash in their hands, they get a lot of the medical bills and other costs paid for that they'd otherwise have to come up with from their own pocket. Lawsuits are not meant to make people rich, contrary some public opinion. Lawsuits are meant to compensate for the damages done. That generally means that a lot of the money won will go to pay hospital bills, doctor's bills, any costs for continuing care, etc. But that's still a tremendous help to the plaintiff instead of having to pay those bills himself/herself.
 
Tax Counsel said:
(Underlining added.)

You're still wrong in your statement about this. I've gone over that before with you. You seem to overinflate what these costs will be.

First of all, the caps on awards do not apply to awards for compensation for the actual damages. Rather, the caps apply to pain and suffering awards, punitive damage awards, or other noneconomic damages. Moreover, most lawyer's fees in these cases are contingent fees, which means the lawyer only gets paid a portion of any successful award. It's true that bringing a small med mal case is not economically worthwhile, but it is not the case that most of any award would be eaten up by fees. Successful plaintiffs do get most of the lot of benefit of a case that has significant damages. These cases can be expensive to litigate and thus truly low value cases are not worth bringing.

But assuming a signficant damage award the plaintiff does get a substantial benefit. Even if they don't get much cash in their hands, they get a lot of the medical bills and other costs paid for that they'd otherwise have to come up with from their own pocket. Lawsuits are not meant to make people rich, contrary some public opinion. Lawsuits are meant to compensate for the damages done. That generally means that a lot of the money won will go to pay hospital bills, doctor's bills, any costs for continuing care, etc. But that's still a tremendous help to the plaintiff instead of having to pay those bills himself/herself.
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Okay, whatever. You can cover whatever with me whenever but it doesn't make it fact. From personal experience and knowing what lawyers tend to take in fees. Malpractice and Product liability attorneys are going to take 50-60 percent if not 70 percent of any settlement in fees, expert witnesses, and whatever else they need to take in fees to prepare it for trial. Lets say you get 500k that means you may clear as the victim anywhere from 150k to less than 200k. Hardly worth it in some situations, Right.

Tort reform has 100 percent had an effect on accident victims ability to get awards and judgements that cover the attorney fees/ expert witnesses much less the ability to recover enough to pay their ongoing medical care from it. All the while the insurance companies continue to make more and more money, raising not reducing premiums.
 
Dinesh said:
Dear Community, Asking these life altering questions, hoping for some good information.

My two boys were brain damaged at birth by our Obstetrician by Pitocin abuse during induced labor at their birth. I have spent years researching it and I have tried to explain it to lawyers. However the boys did not have a Neonatal ICU stay (hypoxic brain damage), and somehow, that seems to be the gold standard, as to whether lawyers can take up the case or not. My boys are non-verbal and almost retarded due to traumatic brain damage suffered from the Pitocin labor abuse ( remember babies emerge head first from the mother - exposing them to force brain trauma from induced contractions).
I have heard from lawyers that a case like this costs over 100k to file properly, without gaurantee of returns. That seems to be the main hurdle to lawyers taking up my case.
I have also offered to make that payment and I still havent been successful in getting them to bite.
I have proof of widespread traumatic brain damage, from MRI scan and I cant really give up having been wronged/ruined so much by this Obstetrician.
I am now toying with the idea of taking up the case myself and would like to know the following.

1) The ACOG.org (American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) provides guidance to hospitals on labor induction protocols. They dont publish this, for fear of repercussions. How can I as a private citizen have them provide that information to me officially, for use in the lawsuit.
2) Will the hospital disclose their labor induction protocols, the boundary conditions and why they exist, based on a filed lawsuit against them?
3) Where can I get information on any cases in the past that might have been 'settled' out of court on this topic.
4) How can I get guidance on how to go about a birth injury lawsuit on my own without a lawyer, although I am still open to getting a lawyer if I can find someone.
Adding my son's MRI report here
View attachment 4394
Click to expand...

If you have $100K to hand an attorney to take your case and none will, I suspect you may not have a very good case.

I am sorry for your troubles
 
I appreciate these engaging and informative answers. I believe my problem is, the entire birth injury legal infrastructure is geared towards hypoxic brain injury ( oxygen deprivation ) but traumatic brain injury from induced labor, while very common ( there are many others in a similar situation that I know of ) lacks legal precedent. There's probably cases "settled out of court" on this, but not any court decisions.

Lawyers I spoke to even felt a class action could be a possibility if I can find other cases of similar malpractice by that obstetrician. While I believe she's done it to many other folks, I dont live in the same state any more, so havent run into any others, similarly injured, that were handled by her. I wish there was an easy way to find that information. I know other parents with other obstetricians in a similar situation, but not others with my obstetrician.

The labeling on the Pitocin - induced labor drug clearly states it can cause such injury if used beyond contra-indication and I know she went past that protocol as the nurses weren't happy and tried to stop it, but nurses weren't allowed to give medical advice at that time (pre ACA), but the OB/gyn didnt say a thing about brain damage being a possibility.

As for the compensation, my 2 boys will not be able to stay independent or earn a living. So, I expect to claim a lifetime of projected earnings as damages in addition to care costs and the max allowed pain and suffering.

As for medical expertise, I believe this kind of labor induction was pretty rampant at one point in the 90's and then it was learnt that it was causing brain damage. I believe the medical community is trying to hide this whole episode from their past for fear of legal liability. By the time my boys were born in 2007 and 2009, protocols were in place to avoid brain injury from labor induction, but unfortunately, since the medical community is not vocal enough about it, there are many Obstetricians that continue the mistake to this day.

Appreciate any ideas you may have in overcoming these hurdles in my legal quagmire
 
It doesn't work like you think it does, and you are not going to get what you deserve regardless if you eventually find a firm or lawyer to take your case. It is adversarial and/ or I would say even hostile. It is not fun and not something you want to be involved in because it puts you and your sons under a microscope. With that said I do wish you well as you pursue a course of action.

Some resources are out there on the interwebs to find firms and attorneys who have handled these cases. I believe you can find someone to do it but it will require a specific course of action.
 
Redemptionman said:
It doesn't work like you think it does, and you are not going to get what you deserve regardless if you eventually find a firm or lawyer to take your case. It is adversarial and/ or I would say even hostile. It is not fun and not something you want to be involved in because it puts you and your sons under a microscope. With that said I do wish you well as you pursue a course of action.

Some resources are out there on the interwebs to find firms and attorneys who have handled these cases. I believe you can find someone to do it but it will require a specific course of action.
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Very true, I have come to realize Obstetricians are a legally protected lot, that can get away with murder. It almost feels like fighting organized crime. But that said, I simply cant let it go either. Life was bad when I didnt know what happened to my kids, but now that I understand what happened, every day is a lot more miserable knowing that my kids would have been fine, if not for this malpractice.
I know I have gained enough medical knowledge to win an argument against any medical expert the other parties can field. It's getting to the point of a trial that seems to be the hurdle. Would regular medical doctors impacted in a similar fashion by obstetrics malpractice and dealing with the consequences of it, qualify to be called experts in the field or would the expert need to be an Obstetrician by profession? I know a few impacted MD's that I might be able to convince, to join me in court.
 
Dinesh said:
Very true, I have come to realize Obstetricians are a legally protected lot, that can get away with murder. It almost feels like fighting organized crime. But that said, I simply cant let it go either. Life was bad when I didnt know what happened to my kids, but now that I understand what happened, every day is a lot more miserable knowing that my kids would have been fine, if not for this malpractice.
I know I have gained enough medical knowledge to win an argument against any medical expert the other parties can field. It's getting to the point of a trial that seems to be the hurdle. Would regular medical doctors impacted in a similar fashion by obstetrics malpractice and dealing with the consequences of it, qualify to be called experts in the field or would the expert need to be an Obstetrician by profession? I know a few impacted MD's that I might be able to convince, to join me in court.
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The best we can say is maybe. You need to be aware that the insurance company experts will most likely be eminent obstetricians, who if they disagreed with your experts, be judged by the jury to be more reliable as it is their field.
 
Redemptionman said:
Lets say you get 500k that means you may clear as the victim anywhere from 150k to less than 200k. Hardly worth it in some situations, Right.
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I don't know where you get those numbers. From my over 20 years as a lawyer I've not seen any plaintiff in the places I've lived get just $150,000 out of a $500,000 award. It is indeed expensive to litigate malpractice cases, but I've not seen very few that were that expensive to litigate or reach a worthwhile settlement. It happens, but it's not the usual result for that size judgment.

The plaintiff might not walk away with much cash in hand if the plaintiff has huge medical bills, but they get the benefit that most or all of those bills get paid — freeing the plaintiff from having to pay them. I Furthermore, lawyers often negotiate lower medical fees and other costs for their clients to help their clients get more out of the award. It's not just about the size of the judgment/settlement, it's also about managing the clients costs, too. It is not unusual where I am that a successful plaintiff winning a $500,000 will have no medical expenses when it's all done and have some left over for future medical needs, too.

Redemptionman said:
All the while the insurance companies continue to make more and more money, raising not reducing premiums.
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Considering the effect of inflation and other rising costs, I would expect premiums to go up along with everything else. Auto insurance in particular is a very competitive business; if one company charges more in premiums than others it won't be in business long. While I'm not a big fan of auto insurance companies, I understand the business and why they do what they do. They've supported a number of tort reform measures because it lowers their costs. Again, I expect that. But as I stated before, compensatory damages are not capped; it's the noneconomic damages that are capped in states with limits on awards. Without that, insurance probably would be even more expensive than it is now. Part of the reason that tort reform to cap those damages took root is that juries had started to award more and more of those kinds of damages in recent decades than they had in the past. It's not all the one way street that you paint it to be.

As to your complaint about how much goes for attorney's fees, the structure for contingent fee agreements is still the same today in my state as it was before tort reform. You can't pin the lawyer's fees on tort reform. If you want a system in which the successful plaintiff will always get his attorney's fees & costs included in the judgment then urge your state legislature to adopt the British system for legal fees. While I see the merit to that approach as it would do a better job of making the plaintiff whole, the downside to that is if the plaintiff loses, he or she would have to pay the defendant's legal fees, too. A lot of personal injury plaintiffs, especially medical malpractice plaintiffs, would not be able to afford that.
 
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@Tax Counsel , on the subject of doctors being independent contractors, I suspect my doctor was an independent contractor and it was a private hospital. I was told we were sent there as ours was deemed a healthy, low risk pregnancy.
Do hospitals not have the responsibility to ensure their premises are not being abused for malpractice, that doctors do not go against protocols established by the hospital even if the doctor is a contractor ?
 
Dinesh said:
@Tax Counsel
Do hospitals not have the responsibility to ensure their premises are not being abused for malpractice, that doctors do not go against protocols established by the hospital even if the doctor is a contractor ?
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Most doctors never face a malpractice claim, and most those that do aren't in the habit of committing malpractice. A hospital does have a duty to patients and if the doctor has a troubling history of malpractice or doing sub par work the hospital should take action to prevent patient injuries. The problem is, of course, that because most doctors have never had a malpractice claim a hospital administrator has no reason to think the doctor may be a risk to patients. If the plaintiff can prove the hospital executives knew the doctor had problems and did nothing to remedy it then there may be a good claim to make against the hospital even though the doctor is an independent contractor.

That does not mean that when suing the doctor for malpractice that occurred in the hospital the plaintiff would not include the hospital as a defendant. In most instances they do because they don't know what the situation was with the hospital and the doctor until after they have conducted extensive discovery. It may be that the hospital gets dismissed from the lawsuit later if the plaintiff can't come up with anything showing negligence on the part of hospital staff.

If the lawyer knows when filing the complaint that the claim against the hospital is frivolous then the lawyer has a duty not to bring the hospital into the case and could be sanctioned by the court for including the hospital in the complaint. That situation, though, would not occur often.
 
I started looking for attorneys again after a hiatus, as life came in between. One question came to mind. Is there a way to access previous birth injury court cases, trials and details around them. I was able to google up some databases but most are criminal and other types of cases. Is there databases, dockets where I can look specifically for birth malpractice cases, with details of case and attorneys involved, particularly in Ohio.
 
Dinesh said:
I started looking for attorneys again after a hiatus, as life came in between. One question came to mind. Is there a way to access previous birth injury court cases, trials and details around them. I was able to google up some databases but most are criminal and other types of cases. Is there databases, dockets where I can look specifically for birth malpractice cases, with details of case and attorneys involved, particularly in Ohio.
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You have access to Lexus Nexus? or something similar can. Almost all attorneys have access to those systems.
 

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