Cook County Jury Awards $75.8 Million Over Twin Birth Injury at University of Chicago

On February 12, 2018, Tanita Housen, 37, checked into the University of Chicago Medical Center to deliver twins. Every prenatal test and ultrasound had shown two healthy babies with no sign of distress. The first twin, a boy, arrived late the following afternoon without any trouble.

The second baby, a girl, was still positioned head down and had not yet settled into the pelvis. Rather than let the delivery continue on its own, the obstetric team moved to rotate her into a feet-first, breech position, a maneuver known as an internal podalic version. According to the plaintiffs, there was no medical reason to attempt it.

A resident carried out the rotation without proper supervision and used excessive force, gripping the infant by the hand instead of the foot. The baby's arm fractured during the procedure. When she was finally delivered feet first, she was blue from oxygen deprivation, in shock, and unable to breathe on her own. Bleeding in her brain forced surgeons to operate twice within the first 24 hours of her life.

The damage was permanent. She was left with brachial plexus nerve injuries at the C5, C6, C8, and T1 levels, shoulder fractures, and brain injury from the combined trauma and loss of oxygen. Her left arm no longer functions, she needs braces to walk, and her cognitive and academic abilities remain well below those of children her age, including her twin brother.

At trial in Cook County Circuit Court before Judge Brendan A. O'Brien, attorneys Matthew L. Williams, Patrick A. Salvi II, and Heidi L. Wickstrom of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard argued that the rotation was unnecessary and that the resident should never have been permitted to apply that kind of force without supervision. They told jurors the distance between the girl and her peers would only widen as she grows. The defense maintained that the procedure was appropriate and reasonable, and that the brain injury stemmed from a fetal-maternal hemorrhage rather than birth trauma.

The jury sided with the family. On February 26, 2024, it returned a verdict of $75,859,000 against the defendants, covering past and future pain and suffering, loss of a normal life, medical bills, emotional distress, disfigurement, and lost future earnings. The Jury Verdict Reporter, a division of Law Bulletin Media, later recorded it as the highest reported Illinois verdict or settlement of the award cycle and honored the trial team with a Trial Lawyer Excellence Award.