A Philadelphia court of common pleas jury on Friday awarded $78.5 million to a woman whose 3-year-old son suffers from cerebral palsy because of what the jury found were faulty diagnostic procedures by Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, where the child was delivered.
Lawyers for the woman, 34-year-old Victoria Upsey, said she arrived at the hospital in August 2008 with signs of complications that caused her unborn child to be deprived of oxygen. Their experts contended during the trial that a prompt delivery could have averted the problem, but that the physician handling the case initially concluded that the baby already had died after performing an ultrasound. When the ultrasound was performed again a short time later by other hospital staff, a fetal heartbeat was detected, and an emergency cesarean section conducted.
