Babies having babies – this situation is too bad. Hopefully, the baby will be able to have a safe life now that there will be monies to assist in care.
It seems obvious that the hospital is at fault. The doctors who were monitoring should have been aware of the baby at all times and taken the proper action when there was a problem. Pretty clear cut to me. And to those who will say this is too large an amount, try taking care of a child with cerebral palsy.
The article states they followed hospital procedure. Without more information than we have – and a medical degree +years of experience – we can’t say it’s obvious the hospital was at fault.
As for the amount, while I would never want to sit on a case like this and decide how much to hand over, $8M is more than enough to care for the child. Even if they stick it in an account earning a measely 5%/year that’s $400,000/year in interest (rounding up for ease of math, but we’re close). Barring catastrophic events that is more than enough to care for the child.
The trouble with these awards is they involve children. We seem to be a little more rational when it comes to adults.
And no, I don’t know what would be reasonable because I don’t know what the actual costs are. I just know people who do not have $400,000/yr disposable income who take care of children with cerebral palsey, so I know it doesn’t take that much. More than the average child I’m sure, I just don’t know how much more.
Things are far from obvious and it’s pointless to spectulate but the verdict appears excessive. A few issues that should have impacted the verdict:
the pltf. was 16 at the time and probablyw without health insurance. Did she receive proper pre-natal care? If not could that have contributed to the bad outcome? There is the possibility/probablity that the hospital did everything correctly but a bad outcome resulted. Childbirth isn’t 100% without “normal” problems. Did the girl get to the hospital “in distress”. Did that contribute? If she was uninsured, maybe she only received the basic care prescribed. That’s unfortunate but it’s reality in the medical world. Depending on how severely brain damaged the child is, the verdict money may not improve the quality of life, but simply go to “maintenance”. Difficult problem; no good solutions. Society’s response is usually “somebody has to pay”.
It shouldn’t matter if the young lady had insurance or not. So, from what I am reading from Ohioan, if you are not insured, you will not be given the same quality of care that an insured person holds. That’s sad. Of course the medical field has faults – that’s why they have medical insurance for their hospitals.
I would say if the hospital was found to be responsible, the verdict is too low to recognize the amount of pain and suffering this child, and eventual adult, will endure in his life. Maintenance for adults with CP easily costs $200,000 a year for round the clock care, feeding and medical treatement in a long term care facility. With inflation, that could be $500,000 annually by the time the plaintiff turns 30. The money will be long used up. And, what about pain and suffering outside of the economic damages? A similiar case in CT came in at $36 million last year. The hospital got off cheap.
True, people should receive the same care whether they are insured or not – but we all know this isn’t the case. We don’t have socialized medicine. Nobody can say they get the same care at the county clinic that they do at the private hospital when they pay with insurance. Somebody has to pay the bills and when the hospital doesn’t know who is going to pay they tend to give more basic care.
Hospitals routinely give away millions of dollars every year in free care and care they never collect on. As long as they need to pay bills and turn some sort of profit (for whatever reason, even non-profits have to show a profit or they can’t grow) they will use the same cost-cutting measures as everyone else to contain the red ink.
Sandra: As Lastbat points out, we don’t have socialized medicine and it’s simply a fact of life that those who can pay may get better care. It’s not that I like the system, that’s just the way it is. Capitalism at it’s best and it’s not just in the U.S. It is a sad commentary that your ability to access proper medical care may be contingent on your status in life i.e. employment, earnings, profession. Nobody chooses to become ill or injured, and how can you turn your back on anyone. It’s a social problem that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.
My sister had fallen on hard times a few years back. She was on Medicaid and needed a gall bladder operation. She awoke at the tail end of the procedure, while she was still being worked on. She said I am wide awake, give me something to knock me back out. The staff told her they had already given her enough anesthesia and finished up the operation while she was fully conscious and screaming in pain.
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Babies having babies – this situation is too bad. Hopefully, the baby will be able to have a safe life now that there will be monies to assist in care.
It seems obvious that the hospital is at fault. The doctors who were monitoring should have been aware of the baby at all times and taken the proper action when there was a problem. Pretty clear cut to me. And to those who will say this is too large an amount, try taking care of a child with cerebral palsy.
The article states they followed hospital procedure. Without more information than we have – and a medical degree +years of experience – we can’t say it’s obvious the hospital was at fault.
As for the amount, while I would never want to sit on a case like this and decide how much to hand over, $8M is more than enough to care for the child. Even if they stick it in an account earning a measely 5%/year that’s $400,000/year in interest (rounding up for ease of math, but we’re close). Barring catastrophic events that is more than enough to care for the child.
The trouble with these awards is they involve children. We seem to be a little more rational when it comes to adults.
And no, I don’t know what would be reasonable because I don’t know what the actual costs are. I just know people who do not have $400,000/yr disposable income who take care of children with cerebral palsey, so I know it doesn’t take that much. More than the average child I’m sure, I just don’t know how much more.
Things are far from obvious and it’s pointless to spectulate but the verdict appears excessive. A few issues that should have impacted the verdict:
the pltf. was 16 at the time and probablyw without health insurance. Did she receive proper pre-natal care? If not could that have contributed to the bad outcome? There is the possibility/probablity that the hospital did everything correctly but a bad outcome resulted. Childbirth isn’t 100% without “normal” problems. Did the girl get to the hospital “in distress”. Did that contribute? If she was uninsured, maybe she only received the basic care prescribed. That’s unfortunate but it’s reality in the medical world. Depending on how severely brain damaged the child is, the verdict money may not improve the quality of life, but simply go to “maintenance”. Difficult problem; no good solutions. Society’s response is usually “somebody has to pay”.
It shouldn’t matter if the young lady had insurance or not. So, from what I am reading from Ohioan, if you are not insured, you will not be given the same quality of care that an insured person holds. That’s sad. Of course the medical field has faults – that’s why they have medical insurance for their hospitals.
I would say if the hospital was found to be responsible, the verdict is too low to recognize the amount of pain and suffering this child, and eventual adult, will endure in his life. Maintenance for adults with CP easily costs $200,000 a year for round the clock care, feeding and medical treatement in a long term care facility. With inflation, that could be $500,000 annually by the time the plaintiff turns 30. The money will be long used up. And, what about pain and suffering outside of the economic damages? A similiar case in CT came in at $36 million last year. The hospital got off cheap.
True, people should receive the same care whether they are insured or not – but we all know this isn’t the case. We don’t have socialized medicine. Nobody can say they get the same care at the county clinic that they do at the private hospital when they pay with insurance. Somebody has to pay the bills and when the hospital doesn’t know who is going to pay they tend to give more basic care.
Hospitals routinely give away millions of dollars every year in free care and care they never collect on. As long as they need to pay bills and turn some sort of profit (for whatever reason, even non-profits have to show a profit or they can’t grow) they will use the same cost-cutting measures as everyone else to contain the red ink.
Sandra: As Lastbat points out, we don’t have socialized medicine and it’s simply a fact of life that those who can pay may get better care. It’s not that I like the system, that’s just the way it is. Capitalism at it’s best and it’s not just in the U.S. It is a sad commentary that your ability to access proper medical care may be contingent on your status in life i.e. employment, earnings, profession. Nobody chooses to become ill or injured, and how can you turn your back on anyone. It’s a social problem that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.
My sister had fallen on hard times a few years back. She was on Medicaid and needed a gall bladder operation. She awoke at the tail end of the procedure, while she was still being worked on. She said I am wide awake, give me something to knock me back out. The staff told her they had already given her enough anesthesia and finished up the operation while she was fully conscious and screaming in pain.