A Utah judge has awarded a family $951 million in damages, the largest payout in the state’s history, after finding that catastrophic medical negligence during childbirth left a young girl with permanent, life-altering disabilities.
Judge Patrick Corum ruled earlier this month that Steward Health Care was responsible for the October 14, 2019, delivery of Azaylee McMicheal at Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Valley City, Utah.
According to court documents cited by The Salt Lake Tribune, nurses who had just completed training administered excessive doses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin while ignoring alarming signs such as rising fetal blood pressure and stalled dilation.
When nurses eventually called the on-duty physician, he allegedly went back to sleep instead of intervening.
Judge Corum condemned the hospital’s handling of the delivery in sharp terms:
“Zancanella would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital. Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth.”
Azaylee was delivered more than 24 hours later via C-section, by which time she had suffered severe oxygen deprivation and trauma. She was airlifted to a children’s ICU with swelling, bruising, a misshapen head, and lasting neurological damage.
Now five years old, Azaylee suffers from frequent seizures, is largely non-verbal, and requires 24-hour care. She attends kindergarten only part-time while undergoing ongoing physical and occupational therapy.
Her mother, Anyssa Zancanella, testified during the trial:
“Azaylee had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us. She is trapped. I know that my daughter is in there, but she can’t come out and I think of that every day.”
The family is now seeking a service dog to detect seizures and travels with oxygen equipment to manage emergencies.
While the award sets a state record, there are doubts about whether the family will ever see the full amount. Steward Health Care is facing bankruptcy and billions in debt. The hospital where the delivery occurred has since been renamed Holy Cross Hospital–West Valley after being acquired by CommonSpirit Health two years ago.
Judge Corum summed up the tragedy in his ruling:
“The person [Azaylee] was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child. I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss.”
