Jury Awards Parent $13.5M in Malpractice Case
A malpractice verdict from a Polk County jury awarded a 27-year-old mother and her son more than $13.5 million in damages. Debra Gardner, of Leon, Iowa, sued the medical center and the doctors after her son Nathaniel, 5, was born there with cerebral palsy. Gardner's pregnancy was allowed to continue for 42 weeks, two weeks past her due date. Gardner and her lawyers claimed that when Nathaniel was born in 2002, the doctor failed to monitor him during the cesarean section procedure. They said Nathaniel was deprived of oxygen for up to 25 minutes, resulting in cerebral palsy. A trial attorney not connected with the case said that this kind of finding is highly unusual in Iowa. He said that juries look very skeptically at medical malpractice and medical negligence cases. He said approximately 90 percent of such cases that are tried, the jury sides with the medical provider.
