In November 2025, a mother filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in Florida against AdventHealth Ocala and several medical providers, alleging that negligence during her labor in November 2023 resulted in her newborn suffering severe and permanent brain damage and severe disabilities that require constant care. The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages in excess of $50,000 and attorney fees.
The mother alleges in her Florida birth injury medical malpractice complaint that she was 27-years-old when she went to AdventHealth Ocala on November 17, 2023 with uterine contractions. After an evaluation, she was admitted for labor.
The woman alleges in her medical malpractice complaint that she was examined before midnight. By 4 a.m., her condition had deteriorated, with nurses documenting fetal heart rate decelerations. However, the nurses did not notify a physician to come to the hospital until 7:54 a.m. According to the lawsuit, a physician did not arrive at the patient’s bedside until 8:25 a.m., at which time the fetal heart tones were around 70 beats per minute. Unsuccessful attempts to deliver the baby by a vacuum-assisted device were followed by an emergency cesarean section delivery at 8:37 a.m.
The baby’s Apgar scores at the time of birth and at 5 minutes after birth were both zero. The baby was subsequently diagnosed with severe diffuse hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy caused by the lack of adequate oxygen to the baby’s brain before delivery.
The mother’s birth injury medical malpractice complaint alleges that the physicians and nurses breached the standard of care by failing to timely respond to signs of fetal distress, by failing to have appropriate backup physician coverage available at the hospital, and by failing to perform the emergency C-section delivery earlier.
AdventHealth Ocala states on its website:
Maternity Care With a Personal Touch
Your life is changing, and a new life is beginning. Caring for you and your family during this sacred time is our privilege. Week by week, our obstetricians will provide expert care for you and your baby, from pregnancy education and support classes to labor and delivery and postpartum support. At The Baby Place® at AdventHealth Ocala, we’re blessed to participate in nearly 2,500 miracles each year — each unique and precious. You’ll find services and special touches to soothe and support you and your baby in body, mind and spirit and to make your labor and delivery experience as safe, personal and comfortable as possible.
If you or your baby suffered a birth injury (or worse) during labor, delivery, or shortly after birth in Florida or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Florida birth injury lawyer, or a birth injury lawyer in your state, who may investigate your birth injury claim for you and represent you and your child in a birth injury medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find birth injury attorneys in your state who may assist you.
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