A judge from Utah, USA has awarded a family nearly $1 billion, the largest payout in the state’s history — after finding that catastrophic medical negligence during a baby’s delivery left her with permanent, life-altering disabilities.
Judge Patrick Corum ruled earlier this month that Steward Health Care was liable for the botched October 14, 2019, delivery of Azaylee McMicheal at Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Valley City, Utah.
Parents Anyssa Zancanella and Danniel McMicheal were awarded $951 million in damages, according to court documents cited by The Salt Lake Tribune.
“Zancanella would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital,” Corum wrote. “Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth.”
According to the family’s 2021 lawsuit, nurses had just completed their training on the day Zancanella was admitted and administered excessive doses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin while ignoring warning signs like rising fetal blood pressure and stalled dilation.
When the nurses finally informed the on-call doctor of the emergency, the physician allegedly went back to sleep in a nearby room instead of intervening.
