Verdicts & Settlements

A 35-year-old woman presented to the defendant’s hospital to deliver her third child. She expressed her desire to attempt a natural delivery after delivering her first two children by c-section. After her labor failed to progress, the decision was made to perform a c-section. Just before the surgery, the defendant OB/GYN recommended to the patient and her family that she have her tubes tied (tubal ligation). The patient refused. After delivering the child by c-section, and while the mother was on the operating room table, the OB/GYN repeated his recommendation to tie the mother’s tubes. Again, the mother and her husband refused. The OB/GYN performed the tubal ligation anyway against the family’s express wishes. The defendants claimed that the mother gave her verbal consent to the tubal ligation in the operating room. The absence of a written consent form for the procedure was undisputed. The patient settled with the hospital nurses and the OB/GYN physician for $435,000.