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$13.9M settlement awarded by jury
Malpractice-case payout to family is biggest in Trumbull court history
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Trumbull County jury has awarded a record $13.9 million payout to a 10-year-old Leavittsburg girl and her family for the medical malpractice of Cortland obstetrician Dr. Tara Shipman, who delivered her.
The eight-person jury issued the unanimous verdict Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court after a three-week trial and three days of deliberations.
Atty. Martin F. White of Warren filed the lawsuit that led to the trial. In addition to Dr. Shipman, the suit named Dr. Edmundo B. Salero of Warren, now deceased, who attempted to resuscitate Haley Cobb just after her birth Jan. 4, 2000, and Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital, where the birth took place.
The Cobb family settled earlier with Dr. Salero’s estate and Forum Health TMH. The terms of that settlement are confidential, White said.
“The most important thing is Haley will be able to have a quality of life that she otherwise would not have been able to have,” White said of the jury award.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay presided over the trial.
Atty. Joseph A. Farchione of Cleveland, who represented Dr. Shipman, did not return a call seeking comment. In opening statements, Atty. Michael Djordjevic of Akron asked the jury to award Haley’s family $15 million to $20 million — the amount an expert witness said would be required to provide medical and other care for Haley throughout her life.
Djordjevic, among four attorneys who assisted White in the case, said Haley is expected to live a normal lifespan.
The jury awarded Haley $12.1 million and her parents, Okey Jr. and Debra Cobb, $1.8 million.
White said the $13.9 million award is the largest in Trumbull County history; the previous high was $8.5 million awarded in another of White’s cases — a wrongful death involving a 6-year-old child.
White said the expert witnesses in the case made it evident that Dr. Shipman failed to heed warnings that Haley was experiencing distress in the womb in the seven hours or so before she was born.
Those warning signs, indicated on printouts from a fetal monitor, should have told Dr. Shipman to deliver Haley by cesarean section, White said.
Haley, who has cerebral palsy as a result of too little oxygen getting to her brain, sat in her motorized wheel chair with her parents during part of the trial.
Haley can’t roll over, talk, grab things or eat normal food, Djordjevic said during opening statements. Her mental abilities are impaired, but she knows the alphabet and can count to 50, he said.
White said Haley requires 24-hour-per day care, which is given by her parents. But the Cobbs had concerns about what kind of care Haley will get if she outlives her parents, as she would be expected to do, White said.
Dr. Shipman’s defense team said in opening statements that Haley’s brain damage occurred before Haley’s mother went to the hospital Jan. 3, 2000.
“There was no real evidence to support that theory,” White said.