PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia jury has handed down the largest medical malpractice verdict in the history of Pennsylvania, in the form of a $182.7 million judgment to a five-year-old boy born with cerebral palsy and his mother, against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
J.M. and Dajah Hagans first filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on June 27, 2019 versus Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Kirsten Leitner, M.D., Julie A. Sayama, M.D., Whitney R. Bender, M.D., Sarah Gutman, M.D., Denise Johnson, M.D., Jessica Peterson, M.D. and Victoria Kroesche, R.N. All parties are of Philadelphia.
(Defendants Sayama, Johnson and Peterson were later individually dismissed from the case.)
The plaintiffs’ litigation claimed that upon his birth in February 2018, J.M. received permanent injuries from a delayed Caesarean section performed upon his mother, Hagans, who had an infection in her uterus at the time.
The plaintiffs alleged that HUP staff were negligent in their delivery of Hagans’s son, leading him to develop hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a condition which led J.M. to suffer both spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and developmental delays – which necessitate him needing lifetime care.
Though the hospital acknowledged J.M.’s condition, it denied being responsible for it and the hospital instead credited J.M.’s injuries to his mother’s uterine infection.
The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas trial jury felt differently, handing down a $182,737,791 million verdict comprised of $101 million for lifetime care costs, $1.7 million for future earnings losses and $80 million in other damages.
The lifetime care cost was based upon a calculus from plaintiff counsel that J.M. would continue to live for more than six decades. According to the hospital, J.M. wouldn’t live past his early teens and had advocated for just $2.5 million in care costs.
At one point during the trial and a debate over whether J.M. was in a persistent vegetative state, he was brought into the courtroom and was shown to recognize his mother, Hagans.
The hospital is contesting the verdict award.
“We are disappointed in this verdict and continue to believe that appropriate medical care was provided. We plan to appeal this decision,” according to a statement from the hospital.
In contrast, counsel for the plaintiffs are ready to receive an appeal and believe the jury’s verdict was understandably justified.
“Specifically with respect to an appeal, we anticipate that the defense will file an appeal, as the defense has indicated an intention to do so when they have communicated with the various news outlets. We believe the jury’s verdict in this case is fully justified and supported by the evidence that was presented and received at trial. If and when an appeal is filed, we plan to address and respond to those appellate issues at the appropriate time,” plaintiff counsel E. Merritt Lentz stated.
An inquiry from the Pennsylvania Record to defense counsel was not returned.
The plaintiffs were represented by E. Merritt Lentz, H. Briggs Bedigian and Jon S. Stefanuca of Gilman & Bedigian, in Philadelphia.
The defendants were represented by James A. Young and Richard S. Margulies of Burns White, also in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 190607280
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com