Senior Trial Partner Anthony M. Sola obtained a defense verdict in NYS Supreme Court, Queens County, in a severely brain damaged baby case in which plaintiff's attorney, James Duffy of Duffy & Duffy, alleged that our delivering obstetrician delayed in delivering the baby for non-reassuring fetal heart rated tracings. The mother, who was at term, had fallen at work about one week before admission and the claim was she sustained an undiagnosed placental abruption. The baby was delivered by C-section a little over an hour after admission to the hospital, but was severely anemic at birth requiring immediate intubation. At trial the now 6-year-old infant was not mobile, and presented with cerebral palsy in all four limbs, profound retardation, an uncontrollable seizure disorder, and cortical blindness. The defense demonstrated that most likely the cause of the severe anemia at birth was a very rare fetal - maternal transfusion, and the delivering obstetrician acted reasonably under the circumstances as a result of which a crash C-section was not indicated.
