Sept. 12, 2008 was supposed to be a joyous day for the Rivera family. Kasie was a patient at Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas, expecting the healthy birth of her son, Haiden. Tragically, things went wrong and Haiden suffered serious birth injuries.
Haiden, now 5, cannot walk or talk and must be fed via a feeding tube. He requires extensive care just to survive. He has severe cerebral palsy among other serious health conditions. According to a lawsuit filed by Haiden’s parents, his severe birth injuries were caused by the military hospital’s negligence.
Specifically, the medical malpractice suit alleges that hospital staff administered excessive doses of oxytocin to Kasie, causing her to have unnaturally impactful contractions. The complaint says that nurses stopped administering oxytocin on several occasions after fetal monitoring suggested there was a serious problem, but hospital doctors kept resuming oxytocin doses.
As a result, Haiden suffered oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia, causing his cerebral palsy.
After a long legal battle, the Rivera family recently settled its lawsuit against the federal government for the sum of $6.5 million. The figure will help with Haiden’s care, but it will not give him the normal, healthy life his parents had counted on before that tragic day in Sept., 2008.
If a medical malpractice at a military hospital has impacted your family, you have a right to explore your opportunities for recovering compensation. An experienced Michigan military medical malpractice lawyer can help you confidentially examine your options.
McKeen & Associates, P.C., is a highly regarded injury law firm that handles Federal Tort Claims Act cases involving medical negligence. Based in Detroit, Michigan, the attorneys at McKeen have the ability to help clients injured in the U.S. or on bases overseas.
Source: AboutLawsuits.com, “Military Hospital Malpractice Claim Settles For $6.5M Over Brain Injury At Birth,” Irvin Jackson, Dec. 27, 2013
