Twin Cities jury awards $20M in malpractice case for woman who died after giving birth

[TexasTowelie]

The family of a woman who died less than a week after giving birth at Abbott Northwestern Hospital has won a judgment exceeding $20 million in what the plaintiff's attorneys are calling the largest wrongful-death medical malpractice verdict in Minnesota history.

The six-person jury's unanimous verdict came Monday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court on behalf of the husband and other relatives of Nicole Bermingham, who died on Aug. 26, 2013.

Bermingham was discharged to her home in Maple Grove after giving birth, according to court documents. But she soon returned to the Minneapolis hospital with fever and nausea. Her family contended that the emergency room nurse practitioner who saw her at that point, Patricia Eid, ignored lab test results showing that Bermingham had sepsis and sent her back home.

The 30-year-old woman, a mother for the first time, returned to the hospital 12 hours later and died.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/jury-awards-20m-in-malpractice-case-for-woman-who-died-after-giving-birth/442132653/

[Warpy]

1. Drive through deliveries with no follow up at home

Insurance companies love them. But they can kill. US maternal and child mortality statistics are worse than those in some developing countries. This should be a source of shame, but since they're only women and children, nobody seems to care. There is money to be made, and if they don't fit the pattern and get sick, too bad.

[Laffy Kat]

2. Negligence and malpractice, alright.

Sepsis can kill so fast.