A medical malpractice lawyer won a $130 million judgment in April after advising a family to reject a hospital’s $8 million settlement offer in 2009 and losing the case. Though an appeals court later overturned that ruling, a second trial led to a mistrial last year when the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.
Today, 10-year-old Shannon Reilly’s mother, Danni, is “thrilled,” according to their now-“humbled” lawyer, Thomas Moore.
Suffolk County’s second-highest malpractice verdict in history will pay home healthcare and physical therapy costs for Shannon, who was deprived of oxygen at birth. Since the cerebral palsy patient is unable to swallow, speak, walk, or write without assistance, her parents worried what would happen to her if something happened to them.
“The agony of the last 10 years is finally ended with the knowledge that our beloved daughter will be protected for the rest of her life,” Danni reportedly told Moore.
The hospital will move for a retrial or file an appeal in a higher court, according to Long Island’s Times Beacon Record. The hospital’s attorney, Peter Kopff, is confident that the appellate court will reduce the $92.5 million the jury allotted for pain and suffering. In Suffolk County’s record-setting judgment of $212 million in 2007, the jury allotted $20 million to a brain-damaged infant for pain and suffering. The appellate court reduced that amount to $4 million, and the $212 million total ultimately decreased to $67 million.
“The saddest part of this case is that … had the nursing team communicated with the obstetrician just 15 minutes sooner,” said Moore, “this terrible tragedy could have been avoided.”
Below, Cleveland birth injury attorney Chris Mellino discusses what you should do if your baby suffered an injury at birth and what it may cost to hire a birth injury attorney in Ohio.
