$11.5 Million FTCA Settlement for Navy Family After Birth Injury at Naval Hospital Guam

In late 2014, Deardre and Daniel Bebeau Sr., both active-duty Navy petty officers, welcomed their son at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam, where the family was then stationed. The delivery did not go as expected. Medical staff failed to recognize and respond appropriately to signs of fetal distress, including meconium-stained amniotic fluid and indications of inadequate oxygenation during labor. By the time the boy was born, he had suffered a hypoxic-ischemic event that caused severe and permanent brain damage, leading to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.

Because the hospital was a federal facility and staffed by military personnel, any claim for compensation had to proceed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows suits against the United States government for negligent acts by federal employees. The case, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia as D.B., an Infant by and through his Parents and Next Friends, Deardre D. Bebeau and Daniel J. Bebeau Sr., et al. v. United States of America, required proving that the care provided fell below acceptable medical standards and that the deviation caused the child's injuries.

Virginia Beach attorneys Michael Imprevento and Kevin Biniazan of Breit Biniazan, joined by co-counsel from Maryland, built the liability case around the hospital staff's handling of the labor. They documented the progression of fetal stress indicators and argued that a timely clinical response could have prevented the oxygen deprivation that caused the neurological damage. Because FTCA cases are bench trials with the government as defendant, the settlement negotiations took place before a federal judge rather than a jury.

On September 13, 2019, a federal judge approved the $11.5 million settlement. The Virginia Lawyers Weekly noted that had state tort law applied, Virginia's medical malpractice cap would have limited recovery to roughly $2.15 million. The FTCA's lack of a damages cap meant the family could recover an amount more closely matched to the actual lifetime cost of caring for their son. The government did not admit wrongdoing. The settlement is among the largest FTCA birth-injury resolutions filed through the Eastern District of Virginia.