A North Carolina jury awarded a 6-year-old and his mother a record verdict of $18.2 million after it found that a doctor’s negligence during the boy’s birth had resulted in permanent nerve damage, disfigurement and a lifelong disability.
The jury’s award, which included $2.2 million in compensatory damages and $16 million in non-economic damages, is likely to be sharply reduced by the presiding judge, in line with state law that caps some medical malpractice awards.
Naqah Lake, now 6, and his mother Laurel Browne, 41, alleged that WakeMed, a private, nonprofit health care system based in Raleigh, and several of its medical staff failed to properly treat Browne during her high-risk pregnancy and complicated delivery on Sept. 17, 2019.
The lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court in North Carolina in 2022 (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star) said that during Browne’s labor as her son’s head emerged, his shoulder became stuck behind her pelvic bone – a condition called shoulder dystocia.
High Risk Pregnancy Ends in a Devastating Delivery
The attending physician at WakeMed Raleigh Hospital that day, Dr. Tara Brenner, a third-year resident, performed a fetal vertex rotation, a dangerous maneuver to rotate the baby’s head. As the baby’s head rotated, his shoulder remained stuck.
“The maneuver ended in a tragic birth injury, tearing all five of baby Naqah’s nerves in his left brachial plexus from his spinal cord, leaving his left shoulder, arm and hand permanently disabled, with virtually no function,” his attorneys later wrote on the firm blog.
About two minutes passed between the delivery of the baby’s head and the rest of his body, The News & Observer reported. Naqah wasn’t breathing and required resuscitation through chest compressions and intubation, the lawsuit said. He remained in the neonatal intensive care unit for nine days, and his left arm remained limp.
Aftermath of Birth
When he was about six months old, surgeons tried to repair the damaged nerves and remove scar tissue, but Naqah continued to struggle with permanent nerve damage known as Erb’s palsy that has left him with lifelong weakness and limited use of his left arm, which remained visibly deformed, the complaint said.
The lawsuit also accused the medical team that treated Browne during her pregnancy of negligence, arguing that her OB-GYN doctor, Angela Gannt, should have recognized that due to Browne’s risk factors during her third trimester — gestational diabetes, morbid obesity, a large abdominal circumference (in the 99th percentile), and being African-American — that she was at high risk for a shoulder dystocia during delivery and should have recommended a cesarian section delivery.
Two days after the disastrous birth, Roderick Lake, Naqah’s father, told a WakeMed doctor that they would have chosen a C-section if they had been informed that their son would have been that large, according to medical records cited in the pleadings. Naqah was 9 pounds 6 ounces at birth.
Jury Rejects Most Claims but Finds One Doctor Negligent
The plaintiffs said the care provided by Gannt and her physician’s assistant during the pregnancy and by Brenner and other doctors during the delivery were below the minimal standards of care for physicians practicing in North Carolina. They argued that the medical team did not use all available or appropriate maneuvers to manage Naqah’s delivery, and that his injuries were preventable.
The hospital argued that the injury to Naqah occurred before birth, in utero, and before Brenner performed the fetal vertex rotation. It also asserted that its doctors and medical providers had complied with standards of care during the pregnancy and amid a complicated delivery.
After a five-week trial featuring dueling medical experts, a 12-person jury delivered a two-part verdict. On July 2, jurors found that two doctors and a physician’s assistant did not cause Naqah’s injuries through negligence. However, they found that defendant Brenner’s negligence caused the boy’s injuries.
After the liability phase ended on July 6, the court dismissed Brenner as a defendant. WakeMed then assumed vicarious liability for Brenner’s alleged conduct.
After a five-week trial featuring dueling medical experts, a 12-person jury delivered a two-part verdict. On July 2, jurors cleared two doctors and a physician’s assistant of negligence but found that defendant Brenner’s negligence caused Naqah’s injuries.
On July 6, the court dismissed Brenner from the case after the liability phase concluded. WakeMed then accepted vicarious liability for Brenner’s alleged conduct.
Family Describes the Lifelong Challenges the 6-Year-Old Now Faces
The jury then delivered its whopping $18.2 million verdict, awarding $1.7 million in economic damages and $16 million in non-economic damages to Naqah Lake, and $500,000 in economic damages to his mother, Browne.
The jury did not find that Tara Brenner was grossly negligent in her treatment of Naqah Lake.
That finding is significant because in North Carolina medical malpractice cases involving a permanent injury, the statutory cap on non-economic damages is $712,847. To lift the cap entirely, a plaintiff must prove both a permanent injury and that the defendant acted with gross negligence, malice, or recklessness.
Judge Gilchrist also granted the defendants’ pending motion to dismiss punitive damages (different than non-economic damages) on July 20.
Despite the likely reduction of the jury award, Gerald Jowers, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told Atlanta Black Star, “Ms. Browne is extremely grateful for the jury’s service and their verdict. This was a lengthy trial that was certainly a hardship for the jurors. They listened attentively throughout, engaged in lengthy deliberations, and reached a just verdict.”
His co-counsel Lisa Weinstein said that the family considers the verdict a win after four years of litigation in which the doctor and hospital denied responsibility.
“Baby Naqah had all five nerves in his left brachial plexus avulsed and ripped from his spinal cord at birth by the negligence of the doctor who performed a maneuver that should never have been performed,” Weinstein said in a statement.
“The jury rightly recognized that Naqah will never be able to play sports that require both hands, hug his mother with both arms, hold his own child with both arms, or simply clap his hands, because of a ‘never maneuver.’ We are grateful for the jury for holding WakeMed accountable for the lifelong disability it caused.”
Hospital Defends Its Care
WakeMed said in a statement after the verdict that it remains “committed to providing a safe environment for patients to receive care and for future generations of health care providers to learn.”
A spokesperson for the hospital also noted that “the jury found three other WakeMed medical professionals were not negligent” and that “the jury also specifically rejected an allegation that WakeMed had failed to supervise the third-year UNC resident appropriately.”
Both sides in the litigation await an order by the judge including the final judgment amount for plaintiffs.
