In the case of a baby that suffered birth injury trauma, a Wisconsin appeals court has ruled that they jury was misled in the defendant’s favor.

The new ruling calls for the case to be retried in front of new jurors.

About the Birth Injury Trauma Lawsuit

Plaintiff Raquel B. was admitted to Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee on Feb. 15, 2012, to have her labor induced. She says that when she gave birth to her child on Feb. 16, the baby was unresponsive and had to be revived by medical staff. According to Raquel, her baby was virtually dead at the time of delivery.

Raquel claims that Dr. Julie Mickelson made a negligent error by choosing external rather than internal fetal monitoring during the delivery, resulting in disastrous consequences. As a result, Raquel claims that the doctor did not realize that the baby was deprived of oxygen. According to the lawsuit, the monitor malfunctioned and in part of the hour before the birth it only picked up Raquel’s heart rate, not the baby’s. This oxygen deprivation allegedly caused the child to suffer brain damage and cerebral palsy.

Court of Appeals Orders Re-Trial

The appellate panel said a judge should not have given jurors the “alternative methods instruction” because it implies that if there were multiple “reasonable methods” the doctor could have used to monitor the baby’s heart rate, then the doctor “was at liberty to choose which of those to use” and was not negligent in making that choice.

The judge erroneously told jurors they “should not find Dr. Mickelson negligent if she merely made a choice between alternative methods of treatment,” according to the appellate decision.

“The issue in this case is not whether Dr. Mickelson chose between two recognized methods of treatment, but whether she negligently failed to determine whether an external fetal heart monitor placed on Raquel’s abdomen was accurately measuring (the baby’s) heart rate and ultimately failed to recognize signs of fetal oxygen depletion. Consequently, also at issue is whether Dr. Mickelson failed to employ a more accurate method of tracing the fetal heart rate.”

The 1st District Court of Appeals ruled that the instruction was a mistake and that the doctor’s choice of monitoring method had an impact on the level of care the patient received. The jury’s instructions implied that the doctor was absolved of negligence by simply choosing any oxygen monitoring method, but the higher court  ruled those instructions were misleading.

What Can Victims Do?

If your child was the victim of birth injury trauma caused by the negligence of the delivery doctor or other medical staff, you may qualify to hire a medical malpractice attorney and file a birth injury lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot reverse the damage suffered by you and your family, victims who pursue compensation through personal injury lawsuits may be able to claim tens of thousands of dollars in damages for injuries, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and disability.

This Birth Injury Trauma Lawsuit is Case No. 2017AP1616, in the Court of Appeals of the State of Wisconsin.