Jury sides with Racine family in medical malpractice suit involving use of Pitocin in childbirth

RACINE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A victory for a Racine family. The drug Pitocin, commonly used in childbirth, was found to be at the root of lasting brain damage for their daughter. Now, almost six years later, a jury awarded the family $10 million, finding Ascension All Saints Hospital and the obstetrician were negligent in how they used that drug.

Pitocin is the synthetic form of the natural hormone called oxytocin. When used appropriately, Pitocin is a great tool to induce labor, but lawyers showed how Pitocin, if left unmonitored, can lead to lifelong consequences.

"One, two, three," Monica Cerna says to her daughter in a video shown in court.

This is Ka'Mya's world, the only world she's ever known.

Diagnosed with cerebral palsy before her second birthday, Ka'Mya's six now and mostly nonverbal, but she's learning how to sign, and she knows how to give high-fives. Her mom, Monica, had a normal pregnancy. Everything was going well, but her labor wasn't moving fast enough, so doctors gave her Pitocin to speed things along, but Cerna says she was never told.

"It was just very confusing, and I just felt like I wasn't being, they weren't telling me what was going on as much as they should have, is how I felt," said Cerna.

In court, a jury agreed with attorney Matthew Patterson, that standard of care with regards to Pitocin was not followed in this case.

"Some moms will get a lot of it and have no reaction at all. Some moms will get a little dose of it and have a very profound reaction. So, in this particular case, they gave a relatively high dose of the drug, 20 mil-units a minute for many hours, that caused too many contractions, which occurred for many hours," said Patterson, with Beam Legal Team and Kevin Martin Law Offices.

Ka'Mya was born via C-section, not breathing and with very little pulse.

"It's an emotional thing for me to speak of because I love her, and I wouldn't change her. I mean I want her to have a normal life, but yeah," said Cerna.

Ka'Mya was rushed off to the NICU, and then to Children's Hospital, even while her mom, Monica, was still at All Saints.

"So, I asked, where is my baby, why can't I hear her? And then they were like, oh, she's right here," said Cerna.

What Monica did finally learn, she learned at Children's Hospital, where she was shown scans of her baby's brain - before the birth and right after, noting the last damage after childbirth.

"It's totally preventable and it's not anybody trying to hurt anybody else, it's truly carelessness, negligence," said Patterson.

The legal team tells us 91% of medical malpractice cases in Wisconsin typically rule in favor of the hospital and medical team. So that this jury ruled in favor of the family is a big deal.