Louisville jury to decide case of baby decapitated during birth

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Wow, I've never heard of anything like this. I can't even imagine.
 
Oh. my. god. That poor, poor woman. This is just unimaginable.
 
later suturing the child’s head onto the body so she could hold him throughout the night and next day.
Click to expand...

Bless this woman and her family.
 
I know a photo catches a mili second of time, but that doctor's look says he really doesn't think he did anything wrong. :(

That poor mom...44 years after my mom lost a baby at birth, she will still tear up if she talks about "I never got to see him, or hold him...they just took him away"
 
I can't even COMPREHEND how something like that could happen??!! Makes me ill to think about it. :(
 
I have a friend, a former respiratory therapist, who was present in the ER when such a thing happened. The medical personnel are also vastly affected by such tragedy, believe me.
 
Such a terrible tragedy for everyone involved in this. :(
 
Oh
My
God!

That poor woman. I can not even conceive of how this experience must continue to haunt her every waking and sleeping moment.

Just nightmarish.
 
“I tried to dislodge the head from being trapped,” Bilotta said of the Feb. 24, 2006, delivery, telling jurors he tried moving the baby in different angles. “After several minutes ... I felt a give” and the head separated from the body.

http://www.courier-journal.com/arti...baby-s-delivery?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home


__________________________

some very graphic testimony follows that snip in the story.
Very sad outcome for this mother. I do not see how she could ever recover from this.
 
I looked on the internet. There are a couple of cases where this has happened in the past. They all had to do with complicated deliverys of a premature baby. They all seemed to be within the 20-24 week gestation range. Just sharing it can be googled if anyone wants to have a look.
 
wfgodot said:
I have a friend, a former respiratory therapist, who was present in the ER when such a thing happened. The medical personnel are also vastly affected by such tragedy, believe me.
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Thanks for posting this.

I agree it's a sad situation for all involved.

Sometimes I think modern medicine is a double-edged sword. One hundred, heck even fifty, years ago this pregnancy would most likely ended in a miscarriage (sad too, but we seem to be able to wrap our brains around that).

And if the mother ~had~ carried to 21-24 weeks and the baby got "stuck"? That usually meant death for both the baby and the mother.

It sounds like medical personnel tried to warn this mother that the pregnancy was not viable. I think they also tried to give her "closure" by allowing her time with the deceased infant.

It kind of sounds like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

I'm afraid the only winner here will be the lawyer (and I actually like lawyers!).
 
plaidmom said:
Thanks for posting this.

I agree it's a sad situation for all involved.
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snip-snip

In the many years my friend worked at the hospital, years in which he no doubt saw many horrible sights, this was the only thing that affected him so much that he just had to talk about it.
 
Jury Deliberates Decapitated Baby Case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A local mother says she deserves $28 million in damages after her premature son was decapitated during delivery at Norton Suburban Hospital.

A jury is deliberating the civil trial after nine days of testimony.

The original amount mentioned was $10 million, but that was just for punitive damages.

http://www.wlky.com/r/29410569/detail.html
 
This is really a tough one. It's horrific, but I can't comprehend that anyone ever could have foreseen this or would have done anything negligent to have caused this. How are they going to be able to prove that the physician handled the cerclage improperly? And the statement about the "nurses ignoring her buzzer calls"???? I question that as well. I can see "not responding" immediately as hospital staffing doesn't allow for that kind of response. I smell lawyers heavily in the mix. I can't imagine going through that, as the mother, or the hospital personnel. I'm shocked she went on to have another pregnancy and delivery.....I feel for them all. The fact that this is in the "Crimes" in the news bothers me though.
 
As a mother, I feel much empathy for this woman. There is no one doubting the pain of her loss here.

As a NICU nurse, I know that infants born at this gestational age are so, so very fragile. I hate to be blunt, but one wouldn't have to tug hard at all to damage a baby at this stage. Their skin is gelatinous and bones, cartilage, and tendons that hold the body's frame together are not completely developed.

This also happened at the hospital where I worked, and although I wasn't present at the delivery, the nurses who were said that the physician delivering was beside himself with grief. I noticed in the article it said that the hospital should "not have allowed" the mother to view the infant postmortem, but I have a feeling had the hospital made that decision, it would have been the wrong one as well.

Ten million dollars won't bring that baby back and make it be born alive, healthy, and full term. :(
 
T4Tide said:
As a mother, I feel much empathy for this woman. There is no one doubting the pain of her loss here.

As a NICU nurse, I know that infants born at this gestational age are so, so very fragile. I hate to be blunt, but one wouldn't have to tug hard at all to damage a baby at this stage. Their skin is gelatinous and bones, cartilage, and tendons that hold the body's frame together are not completely developed.

This also happened at the hospital where I worked, and although I wasn't present at the delivery, the nurses who were said that the physician delivering was beside himself with grief. I noticed in the article it said that the hospital should "not have allowed" the mother to view the infant postmortem, but I have a feeling had the hospital made that decision, it would have been the wrong one as well.

Ten million dollars won't bring that baby back and make it be born alive, healthy, and full term. :(
Click to expand...

I can't even begin to imagine her horror and pain....but I agree with you.

I also think her having another child is amazing. I am not doubting her PTSD ....but she was able to go through the process again. That says something about her strength and determination.
 
This sounds more reasonable than what the plaintiff's attorneys were going for:

Jury awards $1.4M to mother who watched as baby decapitated during birth
....

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/c90b1fd017a4488b90996b258bedcd66/KY--Decapitated-Baby/

I'd be interested in hearing why the jury feels the doctors were liable. I didn't hear all of the evidence and I wonder if they were found liable in essence just because they were there? Kind of like if one is in a traffic accident, both parties usually get a ticket just for being there? I wonder how much of the doctor's demeanor on the stand and personal reputation factored in....
 
As a Respiratory Therapist I was also present when a 26 week preemie was decapitated at birth. It was HORRIBLE!! I still have nightmares, as I'm sure many of the other personnel present do. In our case it was a little better in that it was a home birth gone horribly wrong... (the mother waited to long to come to the hospital when her labor stalled. The little girl had already died when she was "delivered".)

These things do happen and it's horrendous when it does...
 
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