Emergency Situation Law Applied In Shoulder Dystocia Birth Injury Case: Section 15-32-230 of the South Carolina Code (Supp. 2022) requires gross negligence to impose liability in certain emergency and obstetrical care situations:
Section 15-32-230 provides:
(A) In an action involving a medical malpractice claim arising out of care rendered in a genuine emergency situation involving an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to the patient receiving care in an emergency department or in an obstetrical or surgical suite, no physician may be held liable unless it is proven that the physician was grossly negligent.
(B) In an action involving a medical malpractice claim arising out of obstetrical care rendered by a physician on an emergency basis when there is no previous doctor/patient relationship between the physician or a member of his practice with a patient or the patient has not received prenatal care, such physician is not liable unless it is proven such physician is grossly negligent.
(C) The limitation on physician liability established by subsections (A) and (B) shall only apply if the patient is not medically stable and:
(1) in immediate threat of death; or
(2) in immediate threat of serious bodily injury.
Further, the limitation on physician liability established by subsections (A) and (B) shall only apply to care rendered prior to the patient’s discharge from the emergency department or obstetrical or surgical suite.
In the South Carolina medical malpractice birth injury case decided by the South Carolina Court of Appeals (“South Carolina Appellate Court”) on November 2, 2022, Phillippa Smalling, individually and as Next Friend for Jahmerican M., a minor, sued Dr. Lisa Maselli for medical malpractice for the injuries suffered by Minor during his birth. Smalling challenged the circuit court’s application of section 15-32-230 to the claims made at trial.
The South Carolina Appellate Court stated that at 8:14 a.m., Minor’s head delivered with a nuchal cord. Although Dr. Maselli was able to reduce the cord, she immediately realized Minor’s top shoulder was stuck under Mother’s pubic bone, signaling shoulder dystocia, an obstetric emergency. Dr. Maselli used “moderate/controlled” traction to successfully release the shoulder and complete Minor’s delivery. Due to the relatively quick delivery—sixty seconds elapsed from the delivery of the baby’s head to the delivery of the body—Minor suffered no hypoxic injury from oxygen deprivation. However, Minor did suffer a brachial plexus injury.
The jury returned a defense verdict, and Mother, arguing that the circuit court erred in denying her motion for a partial directed verdict, which essentially sought a declaration that section 15-32-230(A)’s gross negligence standard was inapplicable to the circumstances of Minor’s delivery. In furtherance of this argument, Mother asserted the General Assembly intended for subsections (A) and (B) to apply together.
The South Carolina Appellate Court held: “Subsection (B) is inapplicable to Mother’s circumstances because Mother was an established patient of Carolina OB-GYN, where she received prenatal care. Accordingly, the circuit court properly denied Mother’s motion for a partial directed verdict and properly declined her request to declare the gross negligence standard of § 15-32-230(A) inapplicable.”
The South Carolina Appellate Court further held: “Dr. Maselli’s experts testified shoulder dystocia is a medically unstable situation because if the baby is not timely delivered, lack of oxygen can lead to brain injury or even death. See id. (“Respondents’ experts view shoulder dystocia as a medically unstable situation because if the baby is not delivered, lack of oxygen [can] lead to a brain injury or death.”). While Mother disagrees, these opinions provided a basis from which the jury could properly determine the necessary elements of § 15-32-230 were met. Thus, we find the circuit court properly considered the evidence at trial in conjunction with the requirements of the statute in submitting the case to the jury. See id. (“We must uphold the trial court’s denial of Byrd’s motion for a new trial absolute and or judgment notwithstanding the verdict if we find any evidence in the record purporting to satisfy these two remaining elements.”).
Source Smalling v. Maselli, M.D., Opinion No. 5949.
If you or a loved one have suffered serious harm as a result of a birth injury in South Carolina or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a South Carolina 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 or your loved one in a birth injury medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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