Three couples are suing the same Silverton, Ore. hospital for $40 million a piece, alleging that medical negligence and physician malpractice during the childbirth process caused their children’s traumatic brain injury.

The parents of a now 7-year-old boy told the Statesman Journal that their baby developed normally during pregnancy, but during the birth at Silverton Hospital in December 2007, the child went into distress, his heart rate dropping to 60 beats per minute for some six minutes. By the time the boy was born via emergency C-section, he had inhaled his own fecal matter, known as meconium. Doctors and nurses attempted to resuscitate the baby boy with a face mask and oxygen bag prior to clearing his airway of the meconium, according to the Statesman Journal.

The birth injury lawsuit also states that before being transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Oregon Health & Science University, a doctor had removed the child’s endotracheal tube for 45 minutes. At Oregon Health & Science University, the parents were told that oxygen deprivation caused their son to suffer brain damage and doctors informed the child’s father that the baby’s frontal lobe – which controls “decision-making, socialization and emotions, as well as other parts of the brain that control motor function, vision and hearing” — suffered damage.

At age 2, doctors diagnosed the child with cerebral palsy. The boy’s right leg and arm muscles are not developed, he has speech problems and behavior issues and is expected to require leg braces, electro-therapy walkers and surgeries for the remainder of his life.

Further allegations of the birth injury lawsuit are that the doctors “failed to determine, in a timely manner, that (the mother) needed a C-Section and then delayed the incision for an unreasonable time period,” and that “doctors at the hospital took too long to bring the baby back to life and there wasn’t enough staff to provide the care (the baby) needed,” according to Oregon news station KPTV.

Two other local families reported similar experiences at Silverton Hospital. Two of the three lawsuits name the same doctor as a defendant.

Portland television station KGW reported that in 2013, Silverton Hospital “was one of the most federally penalized hospitals in the state by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid because of death rates and patient satisfaction.”

According to WebMD, the term cerebral palsy describes a group of chronic “palsies” or disorders impairing control of movement due to damage to the developing brain. “(Cerebral palsy) usually develops by age 2 or 3 and is a nonprogressive brain disorder, meaning the brain damage does not continue to worsen throughout life,” according to the medical website. “However, the symptoms due to the brain damage often change over time — sometimes getting better and sometimes getting worse. CP is one of the most common causes of chronic childhood disability.”

Cerebral palsy has many causes, including medical mistakes.  Some preventable cerebral palsy injuries are caused by:

• Failure to order a timely cesarean section, causing long-term oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractor during birth
• Failure to treat infection
• Failure to treat meningitis
• Failure to treat jaundice
• Failure to discover a prolapsed umbilical cord

There are some 10,000 infants and 1,500 preschoolers diagnosed with cerebral palsy annually. More than 764,000 people in the United States are afflicted with cerebral palsy, according to the United Cerebral Palsy Association. Oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery is responsible for 5 percent to 10 percent of cerebral palsy cases.