YOUNGSTOWN Stillbirth suit focuses on drug

The woman said no one told her about the possible effects of the medication.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- There was a time in Sunny Barger's life when she didn't think she would make it through a day without crying.
That was during the year after the stillbirth of her first son, Samuel, in July 1999.
She testified Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where she and her husband, Matthew, are suing Dr. Robert McCluskey, saying his negligence contributed to the child's death.
Testimony will resume Monday in the courtroom of Judge Jack Durkin.
"I think I was numb for the first six months," Mrs. Barger said. "When I think back, I don't know how I got through the first year."
Labor-inducing drug
The Bargers and their lawyer, Thomas Travers, say McCluskey should not have used the drug Cytotec to induce Mrs. Barger's labor. They say he had used the drug only once before and it was not his first choice of drugs.
Cytotec is manufactured as a drug for treating ulcers and is not made in doses needed for labor induction, Travers said. Instead, pills must be cut into quarters when the medication is used for induction of labor.
Mrs. Barger said none of that was explained to her, by McCluskey or anyone else at Forum Health Northside Medical Center, before she was given the drug.
If she had known those things, "I would never take that drug," she said.
The Columbiana couple has since had another son, Gabriel.
"I appreciate every moment that I have with my son" because of what happened to Samuel, Mrs. Barger said.
Under cross-examination by Atty. Stephen Griffin, who represents McCluskey, Mrs. Barger said Cytotec was actually prescribed by another doctor at Northside, who administered the first dose.
McCluskey followed the recommendation, even though he was unfamiliar with the drug, and administered subsequent doses.
Cause of death
Travers argued in his opening statement that the drug caused severe labor contractions, which cut off the flow of blood and oxygen to the baby through the umbilical cord. The resulting brain damage is what caused the death, he said.
Travers has also said the death occurred during a nurses' strike at Northside, but JoAnne McCliment, Forum Health marketing director, said that's not true.
Forum's nurses went on strike in 2001, but Samuel's death was in 1999, McCliment said. She was not a witness in the trial, but spoke independently to The Vindicator.
Forum and two other doctors, including the one who recommended and administered Cytotec, were originally named as defendants in the suit. Forum settled and those doctors were dismissed from the litigation.
bjackson@vindy.com