Air Force pays $5M for childbirth malpractice

[unhappycamper]

Air Force pays $5M for childbirth malpractice
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 9, 2008 16:58:49 EDT

The Air Force has paid a civilian employee $5 million for severe brain damage suffered by his baby during childbirth at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan.

William Duckworth was working as a golf course superintendent at Kadena Air Base, Japan, in September 2004 when his wife, Lindsey, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Aubrey.

The mother’s uterus ruptured during the birth and the baby was deprived of oxygen for a prolonged time. Aubrey is now severely disabled — she suffers from spastic cerebral palsy and blindness and has to be fed through a surgical tube implanted in her stomach, according to Patrick Malone, the family’s attorney.

Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne approved the settlement last month, Malone said, and the family recently received the payment. Most of the settlement money will go into a trust to pay Aubrey’s medical and nursing bills, he said.

“This money in no way makes up for the terrible and unnecessary tragedy that happened to the Duckworths,” Malone said in a statement. “We hope that this will help encourage military hospitals to be more vigilant in how they manage childbirth.”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/airforce_hospital_settlement_050908w/

[fasttense]

1. A ruptured uterus? How does that happen?

The midwife never called in a doctor and the child is now permanently disabled.