Patrick Cullan, M.D., J.D.: Jury awards $11.5 million to Omaha couple in medical malpractice lawsuit over child's birth
A Douglas County District Court jury Tuesday awarded an Omaha couple $11.5 million after a medical malpractice trial during which their attorneys argued severe brain damage was inflicted on their child during birth at Methodist Women’s Hospital.
An attorney for the defendants, Nebraska Methodist Hospital and Physicians Clinic, said Tuesday the parties sympathize but believe there was no wrongdoing or failure by the staff to meet the standard of care.
Jackson Cuenca was born in November 2010, according to a civil lawsuit filed in 2012. Omaha attorney Patrick Cullan, who represented the Cuenca family, said Tuesday afternoon after the jury award that the delivery was grossly mismanaged by the midwife and doctor. Breathing problems were left unattended and the child’s health deteriorated during the delivery, Cullan said.
Ultimately, forceps were improperly used, causing permanent brain injury that has left the child disabled, Cullan said. He said evidence of that misapplication of forceps and that the child’s electronic patient record was found to have been tampered with were the key pieces of evidence for the jury.
Thomas Shomaker, an attorney representing the defendants, said, “We strongly maintain that the objective medical evidence supported that Jackson suffered a stroke unrelated to his labor or delivery.”
Cullan said the jury deliberated for most of Monday after a trial that lasted more than two weeks, and part of Tuesday.
“The money will ensure the child is taken care of for the rest of his life,” Cullan said. “He is expected to have a normal lifespan.”
