Utah Judge Awards $951 Million Over Botched Delivery at Steward-Owned Jordan Valley Medical Center

In October 2019, Anyssa Zancanella checked into Jordan Valley Medical Center, West Valley Campus, in West Valley City, Utah, to deliver her first child. The hospital was owned at the time by Steward Health Care. Her labor ran roughly 36 hours. Staff kept her on Pitocin, a drug that strengthens contractions, at a dose an expert later called excessive, and they pushed it for hours while the baby showed signs of distress.

The two nurses assigned to her had finished their orientation only days earlier. Evidence showed the charge nurse declined to step in after a conflict with the patient's mother, and the on-call physician who was supposed to supervise the labor was asleep during critical stretches. The cesarean section that the situation called for came late.

By the time the baby girl was delivered, she had gone too long without enough oxygen and blood flow. Doctors diagnosed hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation. The Zancanella family's daughter is nonverbal, has a seizure disorder, and faces lifelong care needs. The parents, who live in Rock Springs, Wyoming, brought a medical malpractice suit.

David Creasy and Jennifer Morales of Claggett & Sykes, working with co-counsel, built the case around the dosing records, the fetal monitoring strips, and the staffing choices on the unit that night. As the litigation went on, Steward stopped communicating with its own defense lawyers and dropped out of the proceedings. Third District Court Judge Patrick Corum heard the plaintiffs' evidence and entered judgment against the company by default.

On August 8, 2025, Judge Corum awarded $951 million, the largest medical malpractice judgment in Utah history. Roughly half of the figure is punitive damages, and about $410 million covers pain and suffering. From the bench, Corum said the mother "would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station" and called the hospital the most dangerous place on the planet for the birth.

Utah caps noneconomic damages in malpractice cases at $450,000, which would sharply cut the pain and suffering portion, though the family's lawyers argue the cap does not apply because Steward defaulted. Collection is also uncertain. Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024 and sold its Utah hospitals, and the family has said it hopes to recover at least the punitive part of the award.