Doctor's call to broker during baby's delivery leads to $33.8 million judgment

 

From left, Marla Dixon, Earl Reese Thornton and their 3-year-old son EJ on April 26, 2017 in Miami

Marla Dixon was in the final stage of labor and ready to deliver a baby boy when the obstetrician arrived at her bedside at North Shore Medical Center in Miami.

Over the next 90 minutes, the doctor made a series of missteps that led to a tragic outcome for Dixon and her baby.

The doctor ordered nurses to restart a drug to strengthen contractions, failed to perform a Cesarean section and walked away from Dixon's room for long periods, once for an eight-minute phone call from his stockbroker, the verdict said.

According to the news, By the time the baby was delivered on Dec. 2, 2013, he was blue in the face and his limbs were limp, according to the verdict handed down by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola. It took a medical team to revive the infant, named Earl, Jr., and by then he had severe brain damage from lack of oxygen, according to the lawsuit filed by Dixon and the boy's father, Earl Reese-Thornton, Sr.

Dixon said later, that the doctor blamed her for not pushing hard enough. He also tried to cover his tracks by falsifying the 19-year-old mother's medical record with a note that made it appear she had refused a C-section, according to the testimony of the nurse in charge of delivery.

For Dixon, the court's judgment will help pay for a lifetime of round-the-clock care for her son, but it does not go far enough.

"Not one time did he apologize," Dixon said of the doctor, whose name is Ata Atogho. "He didn't care. He kept going on with his lies. He blamed me."

  photo credit: Jose A. Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS