A Maryland appeals court has upheld a $20.6 million award to a family whose son suffers from cerebral palsy due to complications during his birth at MedStar Harbor Hospital in Baltimore.

According to the birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit, the child suffered from oxygen deprivation during childbirth and the family alleged that doctors at the hospital should have performed a Caesarean section to hasten the birth.

As a result of birth injuries suffered before, during or shortly after the delivery, the now 9-year-old child has been diagnosed with severe form of cerebral palsy known as spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, in which he is not mentally impaired but has difficulty moving his legs and arms and will always use a wheelchair.

Ultimately, the jury believed the family’s experts, who testified that the obstetrician’s failure to perform a prompt Caesarean section caused the complications and the cerebral palsy.

Attorneys for the hospital appealed, stating the verdict threatened all hospitals that deliver babies in Baltimore, and they could not understand how the jury reached their verdict. According to the hospital’s attorneys, oxygen deprivation would have caused brain swelling, but ultrasounds showed no signs of brain swelling during delivery.

Blood tests also showed no signs of oxygen deprivation. Attorneys for the hospital allege that the child’s premature birth is responsible for his condition, not birth injury malpractice.

However, the Court of Special Appeals rejected the hospital’s argument that attorneys for plaintiffs had not provided legally sufficient evidence that the cerebral palsy was caused by the delivery and allowed the $20.6 million award to remain. Initially, the family was awarded $21 million in 2012, but since it went over Maryland’s cap law for non-economic damages, it was reduced to $20.6 million.

According to the Court of Special Appeals, the 3-0 decision in favor of the plaintiffs came down to “a classic battle of the experts,” in which the jury ultimately felt that the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses provided enough proof to hold MedStar Harbor Hospital responsible for the child’s health issues.

Cerebral Palsy Birth Injury

Cerebral palsy is caused by a brain injury that can occur before, during or shortly after birth. If the brain of a baby is deprived of oxygen, it can result in irreversible damage that leaves the child with developmental problems, loss of motor functions and other lifelong injuries and disabilities.

Although cerebral palsy can occur without medical malpractice, when the exercise of the proper standards of medical care could have prevented the child’s brain from being deprived of oxygen, cerebral palsy birth injury lawsuits are often filed to obtain compensation for the child.

The verdict in this case comes shortly after a similar birth injury lawsuit tried in Baltimore resulted in a $55 million award against another hospital, Johns Hopkins, which is believed to be the largest award for medical malpractice in the history of Maryland. In that case, the parents alleged that their child suffered severe brain damage during a two-hour delay before an emergency Caesarean section was performed.