$35.3 Million After a Nurse Pushed Air Into a Premature Infant's Transfusion Line

The pregnancy turned dangerous before the baby was born. His mother developed pre-eclampsia and then HELLP syndrome, a severe complication, and doctors delivered her son by emergency cesarean at 27 weeks. He was small, diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction, and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. By two weeks of age he was off the respirator, stable, and gaining ground.

At that point the infant needed a blood transfusion to treat anemia, due in part to the volume of blood drawn for testing. A hospital nurse ran the transfusion through an IV line using an automatic pump. When a small amount of blood was left in the line at the end, the nurse drew air into a syringe and pushed it through to clear the remaining blood. Within minutes the baby coded. Staff resuscitated him.

Days later, ultrasounds and CT scans showed white spots scattered through the child's brain. Physicians identified them as air emboli, bubbles forced into his circulation during the transfusion. By one month, imaging showed lost brain tissue in the form of cysts and lesions. The damage was permanent: spastic quadriplegia, left-side hemiplegia, no usable speech, and a lifetime need for care around the clock.

Patrick O. Dunphy of Cannon & Dunphy tried the case in Walworth County Circuit Court, captioned Terry Bartowitz v. Waukesha Memorial Hospital (case 2005CV000217), before Judge Robert Kennedy. The hospital's lawyers argued that the boy's disabilities traced to his prematurity, to placental problems before birth, and to his difficult first days, not to the nurse's use of air. Dunphy's team tied the timing of the code and the new brain findings to the air pushed into the line, backed by experts in pediatric neurology and radiology.

The plaintiffs had sought $9 million, and the defense offered $5.5 million before trial. The jury went well past both. The Wisconsin Law Journal recorded the plaintiff's verdict at $35.1 million. The parties then settled that verdict, and Relias Media's legal review reported the paid figure at $35.3 million.