Record $183 million medical malpractice verdict against HUP upheld by Philadelphia judge

A Philadelphia judge has upheld last year’s record $183 million medical malpractice award to a child born in 2018 with severe brain injuries at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Court of Common Pleas Judge Gwendolyn N. Bright rejected the hospital’s post-trial motions to have the case dismissed, despite the jury verdict, in a decision issued last week. Bright also rejected Penn’s bid for a new trial, or to have the verdict reduced.

A 45-minute delay in performing a cesarean section for a mother who had an infection in her uterus caused her baby to be born with cerebral palsy and substantial neurodevelopmental delays, making the child completely dependent on others for care, the jury found in April.

Penn’s post-trial motions are a typical prelude to an appeal to a higher court. In this case, the appeal goes to Pennsylvania Superior Court.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and will be pursuing an appeal,” Penn said in an emailed statement.

The verdict against Penn followed another eye-popping medical malpractice verdict earlier this year out of Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. In February, a local jury awarded $43.5 million to ex-Eagles captain Chris Maragos, who sued the doctors that treated his knee.

Juries in civil cases increasingly are awarding larger verdicts in Pennsylvania and nationally. The trend comes as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided to allow more suits to be brought in Philadelphia, where juries can be more favorable to plaintiffs than in the suburbs.

The Inquirer reported in May that jury verdicts rarely get overturned.

Briggs Bedigian, a lawyer representing the mother, said Bright’s ruling was an affirmation of the jury’s finding.

“The jury sat intently, as the judge put it, for three weeks, listened to all of the evidence, and at the end of the day decided that the evidence strongly, strongly favored the injured plaintiff in this case and found in his favor,” said Bedigian, a lawyer at Gilman & Bedigian LLC.