Mom Blames Kaiser for Baby’s Birth Injuries

3-26-2014 21:11:00

     CLEVELAND (CN) - A newborn has scalp and shoulder injuries for which Kaiser is responsible, her mother claims in a lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
     Nicole Esson sued Kaiser Permanente and Barbara Rhoads, M.D., as guardian of her daughter, Layla Varney.
     According to the lawsuit, baby Layla was born on April 6, 2010. Complications, including her large size at birth, a “nonreassuring fetal heart pattern,” and a shoulder that got stuck in the birth canal, were not handled correctly, her mother claims.
     Kaiser and its staff “deviated from accepted standards of obstetric care and were otherwise negligent in the manner in which they managed Ms. Esson’s pregnancy, labor and delivery, including the failure to manage shoulder dystocia within standards of care once it occurred,” the complaint states.
     It continues: “Layla Varney sustained severe permanent injuries, including but not limited to significant injury to her brachial plexus," a network of nerves in the neck, shoulders, arms and chest.
     The baby's left arm is permanently useless because of the shoulder injury, according to the complaint.
     The vaccum-assisted delivery also caused scalp lacerations and bleeding beneath the baby’s scalp, her mother says.
     Esson and her now three-year-old child are represented by Pamela Pantages and Michael F. Becker of the Becker Law Firm in Elyria, Ohio.