During the early morning hours of February 22, 2018, then nineteen years old D.H. was pregnant with her first baby, J.H. when her water broke. Around 11:30 a.m. D.H. was transported by ambulance to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (“HUP”). Within three hours of arrival, the baby was delivered.
Upon waking up from general anesthesia, D.H. inquired about the baby, only to receive vague responses from her mother that someone was coming to talk with her. Ultimately, D.H. was informed that there had been complications and J.H. was in intensive care with a brain injury. Thereafter, J.H. was transported to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (“CHOP”).
As a result of J.H.’s brain injury at birth, he suffers with moderate to severe cerebral palsy, a permanent irrevocable
injury and a multitude of other disorders. The devastating ramifications of that brain injury and diagnosis include that
J.H. is nonambulatory, cannot speak, he has cortical visual impairment, poor control over his limbs, and he is fed by way of a gastrostomy tube. Throughout his life J.H. will be dependent on caregivers to feed, toilet, and clean him. Moreover, J.H. will face a lifetime of growth-related and orthopedic issues, scoliosis, painful spasticity, muscle tightness and joint pain, etc. J.H.’s future holds medicinal interventions (orally, and potential use of such procedures as Baclofen pumps, where it goes right into the brain) and orthopedic surgeries.
The Pennsylvania medical malpractice jury awarded $182,737,791.00 in damages. The trial court entered judgment against HUP. The Individual Defendants filed an appeal, arguing that the Plaintiff admitted during trial that she could not prove liability against any Individual Defendant and de facto abandoned claims against them, pointing out that the verdict slip did not ask the jury to determine the liability of any Individual Defendant and there is no verdict against them.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania stated in its July 10, 2025 Opinion: “Here, the verdict slip did not ask the jury to determine the Individual Defendants’ liability, and the jury entered no finding against them individually. Furthermore, Plaintiff entered judgment only against HUP, not the Individual Defendants … We conclude the Individual Defendants were not aggrieved by the final judgment entered in this case, and therefore do not have standing to appeal. The Individual Defendants’ speculation of what might happen based on this Court’s potential actions does not transform the judgment entered against HUP to a final order impacting the Individual Defendants. Appeal quashed.”
If you or your baby suffered serious harm during pregnancy, labor, and/or delivery in Pennsylvania or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your birth injury medical malpractice claim for you and represent you and/or your baby in a birth injury medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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