Professional Negligence Law Reporter

At 32 weeks gestation, Alexis Willis presented to Advocate Trinity Hospital, complaining of a headache and decreased fetal movement. She was diagnosed as having preeclampsia and connected to a fetal heart monitor, which showed variable decelerations and an absence of variability and accelerations. Approximately two hours later, the monitor showed a prolonged deceleration. Willis was taken to the operating room, where the baby’s heart rate was reported as bradycardic. Approximately 25 minutes later, Willis’s daughter was born in a depressed condition and required resuscitation. Her Apgar scores were three at one minute and five at five minutes. Now seven, she has been diagnosed as having hypoxic-ischemic brain damage and cerebral palsy.

Willis and the baby’s father sued the hospital and an attending physician, alleging failure to perform a timely cesarean delivery.

The jury awarded $23.07 million.

Citation: Willis v. Advocate Health & Hosps. Corp., No. 2020L002753 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Cook Cnty. May 3, 2024).

Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Mary Koch and David Grzechowiak, both of Baltimore; and AAJ members John LaMantia, Soobin Lee, and Joseph Konrad, all of Chicago.