Recently, a Delaware County jury awarded “$40 million to the family of a 6-year-old who suffered a spinal injury during birth.” The settlement is the largest of its kind in the county, but how will it be divided up, and what was the lawsuit about that resulted in such a large settlement? For starters, the settlement is related to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Grayson Charlton, a young girl who has been paralyzed “from her mid-chest down” since birth due to a medical error. According to the settlement agreement, “$10 million will go towards past and future pain and suffering, while the rest of the award will go toward future economic damages.”
Recently, a Delaware County jury awarded “$40 million to the family of a 6-year-old who suffered a spinal injury during birth.” The settlement is the largest of its kind in the county, but how will it be divided up, and what was the lawsuit about that resulted in such a large settlement? For starters, the settlement is related to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Grayson Charlton, a young girl who has been paralyzed “from her mid-chest down” since birth due to a medical error. According to the settlement agreement, “$10 million will go towards past and future pain and suffering, while the rest of the award will go toward future economic damages.”
The medical error that caused the child to become paralyzed occurred back on March 2, 2011, when Grayson’s mother was “admitted to Delaware County Memorial Hospital for induction of labor.” At the time, she was “pregnant with twins, and both babies appeared to be healthy.” However, things began going south when, after being told she would have the babies delivered “via a cesarean section, Dr. Steven Troy, who had been the attending physician, performed the births vaginally.” During delivery, it was discovered that Grayson was “in a footling breech position and should have been delivered by cesarean section.”
According to the lawsuit and witnesses on scene, Troy grasped and pulled Grayson’s body “through her mother’s cervix birth canal, but during that process, a loud popping sound was heard throughout the room. The lawsuit includes an “incident report a nurse wrote that documented the sound,” which was allegedly the baby’s spinal cord being damaged. As a result, Grayson’s family “sued Troy and the hospital, claiming he used excessive force during the delivery.”
Due to the error on Troy’s part, the child will spend her life “in a wheelchair, in a diaper and will be unable to feed herself.” Additionally, Val Parisi, a life care planner, said the Grayson “will need lifelong physical and occupational therapy, personal assistance throughout her days, and regular visits with doctors,” and estimated that the cost of Grayson’s future medical care will likely total $29 million.
The family was represented by attorneys Stephen Raynes and Timothy Lawn. When discussing his client’s ordeal, Lawn said, “the trial was hard-fought and there was significant expert testimony from both sides.” He added that there was “an overwhelming accumulation of evidence pointing toward a birth injury was what convinced the jury.”
What sort of evidence? Well, according to the lawsuit, many experts, including “obstetrician Dr. Benjamin Hamar, obstetrician Dr. Ronald Wapner and pediatric neuroradiologist Paul Caruso, opined that Charlton suffered a severe traumatic spinal injury as a result of Troy’s care.”
However, Troy pushed back during the litigation processes, contending that “his treatment was within the standard of care, and that the plaintiffs’ causation arguments were speculative.” He argued that “given the positioning of the fetuses, a vaginal delivery was well within the standard of care.”
Unfortunately for Troy, the jury did not side with him and instead awarded the largest medical malpractice settlement in the county’s history to Grayson and her family.
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