Family awarded nearly $1 billion after 'botched' hospital birth left baby permanently disabled
Madison Burgess
Featured Image Credit: Supplied
A family has been awarded almost $1billion after suing a Utah hospital for 'botching' the delivery of their baby girl, leaving her permanently disabled.
Anyssa Zancanella filed a medical malpractice lawsuit and has subsequently been awarded $951 million after a catastrophic delivery in October 2019.
What should have been a safe delivery instead ended in horror as a judge ruled that her baby, a little girl called Azaylee, would have been safer being born in 'the bathroom of a gas station, or a hut somewhere in Africa'.
While Zancanella was on a trip in the Salt Lake City area, her water broke and the family rushed to the Jordan Valley Medical Center West Valley Campus in Utah, US - miles away from their home state of Wyoming.
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At the time, the hospital in question was run by Steward Health Care, which is now defunct, as per MailOnline.
The suit alleged that the nurses who were tending to the mother had very little experience and she was given 'excessive' doses of Pitocin - a labor-inducing drug.
It reportedly read: "'This was the very first, or one of the very first times, that either of the assigned bedside nurses had individually been assigned a labouring patient."
Zancanella also claims that she was ignored by the healthcare staff and doctors didn't perform a C-section delivery until over a day after she was admitted, which tragically deprived her baby of oxygen and caused lasting brain damage.
The lawsuit continues: "[The obstetrician] abandoned mother and fetus/infant when she was fully aware of significant and dangerous issues with the ongoing labor process and the ongoing health and well-being of the fetus.
"[Azaylee] sustained damages, including but not limited to, permanent neurological and cognitive damages, physical damages, emotional damages, limitations in physical, cognitive and mental function, as well as pain and suffering."
The little girl is now four years old and she suffers seizures, is nonverbal, and therefore requires around-the-clock care.
Azaylee is undergoing both physical and occupational therapy and has to share a bed with her parents because she cannot sleep alone.
During her heartbreaking testimony, Zancanella said: "[Azaylee] had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us. She is trapped. I know that my daughter is in there, but she can't come out and I think of that every day."
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Steward Health Care were found liable by Third District Judge Patrick Corum.
He said at the hearing: "[Zancanella] would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital.
"Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth."
He continued: "The person she was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child. I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss."
![The judge said the hospital in question was 'the most dangerous place on the planet for her [Zancanella] to have given birth' (Supplied)](https://resizer.ladbiblegroup.com/unsafe/rs:fit:3840:0:0:0/g:sm/q:70/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0OGJiZjE2YzJkN2EyMDllNS9ibHQ2MTNhOWE3NWUxYzI5MTdkLzY4YjgxNWQwMzM1NjNlYjQyN2NiMGFmOS9pbWFnZV8oNikucG5n.webp)
The judge awarded the family $951million, noting that it would have been even higher if Steward had not stopped communicating with its attorney.
He explained: "Had the defendant been here, I think the testimony would have been lengthier and even more compelling, if that's possible."
However, the company reportedly filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and withdrew from the case, leaving the question of how the family will receive their damages.
The family's attorney, Jennifer Morales, has confirmed that they still expect to collect at least half of the award, which represents punitive damages.