Attorney Jeffrey Catalano assisted in obtaining a $4,000,000 verdict for the family of a mother who bled to death following the delivery of her fourth child.
On August 5, 2008, the decedent had a C-section to deliver her fourth child. The child was born healthy, but during the delivery, the mother suffered uterine atony, and the doctor accidentally cut a hole in her small bowel.
The hole was repaired, and the mother was given medication to treat the atony, but she lost a quarter of her total blood volume, which qualified as a postpartum hemorrhage under established guidelines.
Due to the hemorrhage and the fact that she had been severely anemic during her entire pregnancy, the standard of care required an immediate blood transfusion. Post-delivery, the defendant physician, who had performed the C-section, ordered that blood be available should she need it “in the future.” He testified that her life could be in danger if she lost any more blood.
The cross-matched blood was available at that time, but a transfusion was not performed.
After the delivery, he signed the decedent over to the other defendant physician to take over her care.
An hour later, the mother started bleeding profusely from her vagina, which the defendant described in the medical record as “gushes” of blood. The bleeding was caused by her uterine atony returning once the medications wore off.
Though the bleeding continued, the doctor did not order a blood transfusion despite being aware that blood was immediately available. At that point, the decedent’s vital signs had not been recorded for more than an hour.
Eventually, the decedent lost so much blood that she went into cardiac arrest. A blood transfusion was administered 10 minutes later. After hours of CPR, transfusions, and a hysterectomy, she was pronounced dead. She left behind her new baby and three other young children.
At trial, the defendants relied on an autopsy report that concluded the cause of death was amniotic fluid embolism, or AFE — an extremely rare condition considered untreatable.
However, the autopsy was conducted by a doctor who was not given critical medical records by the hospital, which would have confirmed that she bled to death due to uterine atony.
The plaintiff demonstrated that the autopsy was flawed and that the decedent’s death did not fit the criteria for AFE. The plaintiff also argued that it was suspicious that the defendant called the medical examiner’s office an hour after she died to suggest that the death may have been from AFE, which may have biased the medical examiner’s conclusions.
After a three-week trial and a week of deliberations, the jury found against the second defendant in favor of the family in the amount of $4 million for the mother’s conscious pain and suffering.
