Kody's Story
Kody was born on September 4, 1996. His mother, Jennifer, had delivered two prior babies by c-section due to complications during both deliveries. When Jennifer became pregnant a third time with Kody, she did everything right. She went to her Ob-Gyn for prenatal care, followed the doctor’s instructions to the letter, and was informed that her pregnancy was progressing very well.

Early on in her pregnancy, Jennifer’s Ob-Gyn advised her that she should deliver the third child by c-section due to her history of complications during delivery, as well as, her history for delivering large babies.

Unfortunately, prior to delivery, Jennifer’s Ob-Gyn retired and her care was transferred to a new doctor. Jennifer told the new doctor about her prior history and that she would like to proceed with a c-section for delivery of the third baby. The new doctor advised Jennifer that she could likely delivery this baby vaginally and that many women deliver vaginally after a c-section. This procedure, vaginal birth after c-section (VBAC), was described by the new doctor and Jennifer reluctantly agreed to a trial of labor and vaginal birth if everything went well.

Finally the moment arrived and Jennifer went into labor. She and her husband arrived at the hospital and were admitted to the labor and delivery department where the trial of labor began.

After many hours, it became apparent that the delivery was not progressing as planned. Jennifer’s doctor assured her that this was typical for a vaginal delivery and that they would wait a little longer and closely monitor the baby’s condition. At that point, her doctor went to bed in the sleep room at the hospital and turned her care over to the nurse in charge of monitoring Jennifer and the baby.

Several more hours passed and the nurse failed to detect that Jennifer’s labor was not progressing and that the baby’s condition was deteriorating rapidly. When the nurse finally noticed that the fetal monitor indicated something was seriously wrong, she ran to wake the doctor.

When the doctor entered the room, she discovered that the baby was in trouble. She wanted to do an emergency c-section, but the nurse informed her that she was the only on-call doctor in the hospital and there was no one available to assist her. The doctor had no choice but to proceed with a vaginal delivery, performing an episiotomy and attempting to maneuver the baby into position for delivery.

As the baby was coming down the birth canal, the baby’s shoulder became lodged under Jennifer’s pubic bone, a condition known as shoulder dystocia. This caused a delay in the delivery of the baby, as well as, compression of the umbilical cord which deprived the baby of oxygen for a significant amount of time.

When Kody was delivered, he was in severe distress. Having been deprived of oxygen during the delivery, he had initial APGAR scores of zero, zero at 5 minutes, and zero at 20 minutes. He was immediately rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital where treatment was initiated to save his life.

As a result of the birth injury, Kody sustained severe brain damage leaving him a quadrapalegic, totally dependant on others for his survival. Kody cannot walk, talk, feed himself, use the bathroom, or perform any other activity of daily living that other children his age can. He will need 24 hour a day care for the rest of his life.

This places an incredible strain on Jennifer and the entire family. They love Kody with all of their heart and have devoted their lives to taking care of him and making his life as comfortable as possible, but Kody’s disabilities are severe and this has affected all of their lives.

The doctors estimate that Kody’s future medical care may exceed $6 million dollars. Jennifer and her husband cannot afford this great expense. Jennifer cannot work since all of her time is consumed by Kody’s needs. Her husband Kip works full time in construction, but his income could not possibly pay for Kody’s medical and rehabilitation expenses, as well as, the other family expenses for their other two children and home.

Jennifer and Kip turned to Irwin & Boesen for help. Our attorneys investigated the case, reviewed thousands of pages of medical records, hired doctors to review the case, and determined that this should never have happened to Kody. Jennifer was a young healthy mother, who had difficulty delivering babies vaginally in the past and who was perfectly happy to deliver her third baby by c-section to prevent any injury to her baby.

Kody’s injury was caused by the doctor’s failure to anticipate birth complications (the doctor never even obtained Jennifer’s prior medical records from the retiring doctor whose office was in the same building). While it may be argued that a trial of labor was within the standard of care for Jennifer with this third baby, her doctor failed to order a timely c-section when it was apparent that Kody was in distress, which would have prevented Kody’s injuries.

While the doctor was negligent in the delivery of Kody, the hospital’s nurse who monitored Jennifer when the doctor went to sleep was also negligent for not identifying the fetal distress and immediately notifying the doctor in the sleep room.

Tragically, all of this could have been avoided had the doctor and the nurse paid more attention to their patients, Jennifer and Kody.

The doctor, hospital, and their insurance company resisted settling the case and instead forced Kody, Jennifer, and Kip to go to trial. The insurance company was able to present a long line of doctors and nurses who testified that the doctor and nurse in this case did nothing wrong and that, unfortunately, sometimes bad things just happen to good people.

The Jury paid careful attention during the 3 week trial while Irwin & Boesen presented the case on behalf of Kody. They learned the facts and the medicine and determined that this should never have happened to Kody. The Jury awarded Kody $14.6 million dollars for his injuries, disability, and future medical and life care expenses.

Kody sustained serious and permanent brain damage due to the lack of oxygen during his delivery. He will never understand what happened to him, why he is confined to a wheelchair, why he is fed through a feeding tube, why he has seizures, why he cannot communicate verbally with other people, why he must wear diapers his entire life, why he cannot bathe himself, why he must undergo painful surgeries to break and reshape his hip joints, and many other things that most of us cannot even imagine.

Money can never make up for what Kody and his family have gone through as a result of his delivery. However, this money will provide for Kody’s future medical treatment and rehabilitation and allow Kody to have a better life.

His family came to Irwin & Boesen for help and for justice. They hope that his story will help someone else avoid a similar outcome.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another person or company, please contact us for an honest and fair evaluation of your case.