A New York state Supreme Court jury in Queens awarded $19.6 million to a couple after their baby was brain-damaged and the mother was severely injured during delivery of their child with forceps. In October 1998 at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan, during delivery a hospital resident yanked at the baby’s head with forceps for 23 minutes. The baby was born lifeless and severely oxygen-deprived requiring emergency resuscitation. The anesthesiologist then negligently inserted a breathing tube into the baby's esophagus, which carries food or liquid to the stomach, rather than into his windpipe and pumped oxygen into his stomach instead of his lungs. The boy, now 9, suffers from cerebral palsy. Furthermore, during the delivery the mother suffered a tear all the way to her rectum requiring two physicians to repair, of which one of the physicians left the room. Unassisted, the botched repair left the woman with a severe birth canal laceration. Five surgeries later to try and repair the area have left the woman with scar tissue and excruciating pain. “It was a violent, traumatic delivery that should never have happened,” said the couple’s lawyer. The jury of three men and three women found St. Vincent's and its physicians responsible for the injuries and awarded $12 million to the mother and $7.6 million to the child.