Settlement in Medical Malpractice Case Over $4,000,000 Sealed
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A Pennsylvania judge refused to seal a $4.25 million settlement in a 2011 medical malpractice case over the death of twin fetuses. The settlement came after five years of litigation.
The lawsuit followed the 2009 death of the twins, who were stillborn after their mother suffered a seizure 33 weeks into her pregnancy. The complaint alleged doctors at Moses Taylor Hospital failed to properly monitor and treat the mother for preeclampsia — a serious medical condition characterized by high blood pressure. As a result, the woman suffered a seizure, which led to hypovolemic shock, tachycardia and massive hemorrhaging, and required her to undergo an emergency hysterectomy and removal of her fallopian tube and ovaries. At age 29, she was left unable to conceive children. The woman sought “compensatory damages for her own harm, along with wrongful-death and survival damages on behalf of the twins.”
The defense requested that the settlement be sealed, but Judge Terrance Nealon ruled that the public’s right to know outweighed concerns defense attorneys raised that release of the information would discourage hospitals and physicians from settling malpractice cases in the future. He also noted that the case had been widely reported on in the media, so many of the details were already in the public domain.
