An $11 million settlement has been reached between a suburban hospital and the family of a Chicago girl, now 4, whose birth injuries were so profound she can’t speak, walk or even eat.
Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood agreed to the payout this week, something Stacie Burek said will ensure her daughter receives the medical help necessary to deal with her severe cerebral palsy, a condition that has left the girl in a wheelchair with a feeding tube through her stomach.
It’s difficult for Stacie Burek, 38, who along with husband James and their two daughters live in the Southwest Side’s Garfield Ridge neighborhood, to think about the events of Feb. 6, 2005.
It was just a few days shy of when the Bureks were scheduled to go to the hospital for a planned Caesarean delivery.
While she wasn’t in labor, Stacie Burek said she “didn’t feel quite right” and called her doctor, and the doctor sent her to Loyola in Maywood for blood tests.
At one point at the hospital, her water broke and resident physician Dr. Mark Santillan and attending physician Dr. Sridevi Reddy induced labor by giving her the drug Pitocin, according to Burek and her attorney.
The doctors were preparing for a vaginal birth, even though Stacie Burek said she twice asked the doctors to deliver via C-section, concerned that her uterus would rupture, she recalls.
By evening, the fetus’ heart rate repeatedly plunged, so Stacie Burek said she was instructed to begin pushing. Very quickly, the doctors shifted gears and decided to deliver by C-section.
When it was all over, not only had the child suffered severe injuries, Stacie Burek suffered a uterine rupture — damage so great she can’t risk having more children.
“These cases tend to be a cascade of bad choices and wrong turns,” said Burek’s attorney Kevin G. Burke, of the firm Burke, Mahoney & Wise.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, dangerous drugs, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Personal Injury Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.