$750,000 Settlement for Shoulder Dystocia and Erb’s Palsy

Carol Forte obtained a $750,000 recovery on behalf of an 18-year-old girl with a permanent brachial plexus injury she sustained during her birth, which was complicated by shoulder dystocia. Despite numerous risk factors for the occurrence of shoulder dystocia, the girl’s mother was not given a c-section, which would have avoided the shoulder dystocia which occurred during the vaginal delivery. The mother was very short, obese, was a diabetic, and, had a prior baby with a shoulder dystocia. The mother had an abnormal fetal ultrasound days before birth which showed the baby had a very large abdominal circumference, predicting that the shoulder would get stuck during birth of this child who weighed over 10 pounds; which it did. The doctor used excessive downward pressure on the baby’s head to deliver the infant, resulting in permanent damage to one of the girl’s arms.