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19 Jun 2010 The Gazette
Tom Zytaruk Canwest News Service
 Surrey Now

 Mother of B.C. girl with cerebral palsy wins $1.5M in lawsuit Doctor, nurse
found negligent in care


SUREY, B.C.-A little girl suffering from severe cerebral palsy has been
awarded more than $1.5 million by a B.C. Supreme Court judge after he found
a doctor and nurse guilty of negligence in her perinatal care. 

Five-year-old Mirella Rochelle Steinebach's mother, May Jean Steinebach,
successfully sued the Fraser Health Authority, which oversees the Surrey
Memorial Hospital, Dr. Jodi Lock O'Brien and nurse Charito Hermogenes on the
child's behalf. 

A second nurse, Rosemary Appleby, was also named in the lawsuit but Justice
Ian Pitfield found no fault on her part. 

Mirella was born on March 31, 2005. She suffers from severe cerebral palsy
caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain, which is attributed to a
placental abruption - a separation of the placenta from the wall of the
uterus - which occurred some time before her birth. 

The abruption cut the oxygen supply to her brain. 

The girl's mother alleged that nurses Hermogenes and Appleby, and O'Brien -
the family physician, who attended to Steinebach during labour and delivery
- were negligent in their perinatal care of Steinebach and her fetus. 

She argued that they failed to "properly consider" signs indicating the
onset of the abruption, the need to consult an obstetrician when she was
admitted to hospital, the need to intensely monitor the fetus's health
during labour, and "the need to be prepared for immediate intervention that
would have resulted in Mirella's delivery before harm resulted from a
complete abruption." 
The judge dismissed the claim against Appleby, finding " there is nothing
for which she is to be criticized or faulted." 

"I find that the negligence of both Dr. O'Brien and nurse Hermogenes caused
Mirella's injury," he wrote in his reasons for decision. 

The judge apportioned 60 per cent liability to the doctor and 40 per cent to
the nurse and her employer, the Fraser Health Authority. 

"The evidence indicates, and I find, that Mirella's physical injury at birth
was catastrophic," Pitfield found. 

"She cannot speak and is not likely to speak. She cannot swallow and must be
fed and will always be fed by a gastronomy tube. Her respiratory capacity is
severely impaired. It is likely that she will suffer a range of respiratory
illnesses through her lifetime. 

"Her motor ability is severely restricted," the judge continued. 

"She will never be able to walk. She may be able to turn herself over but
she cannot yet do so at age five. There is no way of knowing what
appreciation, if any, Mirella has or will have of her circumstances. It is
not likely that she will develop intelligence beyond that of a four-year
old. There is no way of knowing whether she is in pain or whether she will
experience pain in the course of her lifetime."
 

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