Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Boulter v. Coleman, No. 1584CV02372 (Mass. Super. Ct. Suffolk Cnty. May 14, 2019).

Kimberly Kirkwood-Boulter was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital to deliver her first child. During labor, the nurse responsible for monitoring the baby’s heartrate had difficulty differentiating Kirkwood-Boulter’s heartbeat from her baby’s during the second stage of labor, which lasted up to six hours. Nevertheless, Kirkwood-Boulter was encouraged to push, and the obstetrical team did not switch from intermittent fetal monitoring via handheld device to continuous monitoring.

Kirkwood-Boulter’s son was born severely acidotic and not breathing. His Apgar scores were one at one minute and three at five minutes. Now 6, he suffers from brain damage and cannot walk, talk, or feed himself. Kirkwood-Boulter and her husband sued the hospital; members of its delivery team; and the employer of the attending nurse, Cross Country Staffing, Inc.; alleging failure to provide continuous monitoring during the delivery. The plaintiffs alleged that even though the nurse had little to no information about the baby’s well-being during the last hour and a half of labor, she continued to encourage Kirkwood-Boulter to push.

The jury awarded $30.55 million.

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Benjamin R. Zimmermann and David P. McCormack, both of Boston.
Plaintiff experts: Norman Ravski, obstetrics, New Haven, Conn.; and Jamie Kausch, nursing, Pennington, N.J.
Defense experts: Bonnell Glass, nursing, Natick, Mass.; and Renee Goldberg, obstetrics, Westwood, Mass.