$100M verdict in birth injury case

A jury handed down a $100 million verdict against a hospital for a Staten Island teenager who suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a premature birth. The case took years to litigate. The baby is now 17-year-old Stephanie Debes, who, along with a twin sister, was born three months early after staff at St. Vincent’s Medical Center on Staten Island allegedly failed to give them proper care, according to an article in the New York Post. The twin, Amanda, was fine, but Stephanie, although she can speak, has physical problems that prevent her from even being able to roll over in bed. The jury found that hospital staff was negligent in failing to recognize her mother’s contractions before she went into labor and failed to prevent pre-term delivery. The jury’s verdict will be limited to insurance coverage of about $16 million because St. Vincent’s went bankrupt in 2010. More about birth injury lawsuits.