Award Will Provide Lifetime Care for Child with Cerebral Palsy
Beam Legal Team has again successfully represented and obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for a child who was injured due to the deliberate indifference of her serious medical condition.
Plaintiff, a minor, by and through her Conservator, filed a claim for damages against Defendant, the County of Wayne, for violating her Constitutional rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Civil Rights Act, Title 42 of the United States Code, Section 1983.
The lawsuit arose out of Defendant County of Wayne’s implementation, adoption, and/or toleration of customs, practices, policies and/or procedures which deprived minor-Plaintiff of medical attention for her serious medical needs and, as a result, the County was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of harm to minor-Plaintiff [Monell violation]. Plaintiff also claimed that the individual Defendants were deliberately indifferent to the serious and blatantly obvious medical needs of minor plaintiffs mother [hereinafter “Sandy”], and her unborn baby, minor-Plaintiff.
In December 1998, Sandy, a pregnant pretrial detainee, was awaiting trial and incarcerated at Wayne County Jail. On or about December 2, 1998, Sandy was diagnosed with pre-term labor at Wayne County Jail and was taken to Hutzel Hospital. She was released from Hutzel Hospital two hours later. Upon return to Wayne County Jail, Sandy was 2-3 cm dilated and having contractions. She was placed in her locked cell, unmonitored.
There was no deputy or nurse within sight or sound of Sandy. Sandy’s water broke and her contractions increased. Despite her screams and those of all the other inmates on her ‘rock,’ it took almost two hours before she could get any medical treatment. By the time a nurse came, Sandy’s baby was crowning. The nurses failed to even perform a basic assessment of Sandy and the baby remained crowning until EMS came to the facility and delivered the minor-Plaintiff.
From the time mother and baby were shipped back to Wayne County Jail at or about midnight on December 3, 1998, there was no documentation and no deposition testimony that any one of the Defendants ever did anything to evaluate or care for mother or baby.
The case was settled for $8,000,000.00.