Confidential
Settlement – $8,000,000Judge
Court
Maricopa Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Gregory A. Patton
(Patton Mosier)
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Barry S. Schifrin
(medical)
Jack H. Sills
(medical)
Michael G. Willoughby
(technical)
Donna M. Barras
(medical)
Defendant
William D. Rhine
(medical)
Steven E. Clark
(medical)
Allen Erenberg
(medical)
Richard Allen
(medical)
P. Gregg Curry
(technical)
David Griesemer
(medical)
Facts
On Sep. 4, 1997, the plaintiff, a 45-year-old female, went to defendant Medical Center to give birth to her fifth
child. She arrived at 10:44 a.m. and at 10:55 a.m., she had a spontaneous rupture of membranes with thick
meconium. The attending OB was paged, and the plaintiff was admitted and monitored. At 11:10 a.m., the
first-year resident, examined the plaintiff. At 11:20 a.m., she noticed decreased beat-to-beat variability. At
11:24 a.m. there was a questionable fetal heart tone baseline noted with decreased reactivity.
The first-year resident paged the attending OB who ordered an amino infusion and internal monitoring device.
At 11:30 a.m., the fetal heart rate was in the 110s with poor beat-to-beat variability. An internal monitor was
placed at 11:44 a.m. and an amnioinfusion was started.
At 11:53 a.m., a second-year resident arrived and reviewed the strip. She watched the strip for a few minutes
and then called another resident, a chief OB resident to review the strip. At 11:57 a.m., the chief OB arrived
and was informed that the attending OB had been advised of the plaintiffÆs condition 15 minutes earlier (about
11:42 a.m.) and that he was on his way. At 12:01 p.m., a second-year resident performed a scalp stimulation.
At 12:15 p.m., the attending OB arrived at the hospital and ordered a C-section. The C-section was performed
at 12:40 p.m. The resident neonatologist suctioned with wall suction and then made her first attempt at
intubating the baby. One of the hospital nurses asked the resident neonatologist if she needed assistance, which
the resident neonatologist declined. The nurse requested another nurse to call another team, including a
neonatologist to resuscitate the baby.
The resident neonatologist made a second attempt at intubation, which was also
unsuccessful. The anesthesiologist who was present at the C-section also asked the resident
neonatologist if she required assistance, and, again, the resident neonatologist declined. At
12:46 p.m., the babyÆs heart rate and respirations were both at zero. A code team was called and
the attending neonatologist, took over and immediately intubated the infant. At 12:47 p.m., the
infantÆs heart rate was over 100.
Settlement Discussions
The parties attended three settlement conferences. At each settlement conference, the plaintiffs demand was $8 million. The defendants first offered $650,000, then $2.5 million and at the third settlement conference stated they would never pay more than $4 million total.
Other Information
$7.5 million was paid by the Good Samaritan Hospital and the resident physicians; $500,000 was paid by OB/GYN, Steven Plimpton, M.D.
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