A multimillion-dollar judgment -- called the largest medical malpractice award ever given in this province for a baby's delivery and care -- has been awarded against a doctor who was found negligent in not treating a newborn for herpes.
In a 150-page written decision released on Friday, Madam Justice Shawn Greenberg of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench found that Dr. Chi Ieng Chow, an obstetrician, was negligent in not suspecting the then 17-year-old woman had herpes and not referring her newborn child to an infectious disease specialist or neonatologist.
Because of the doctor's negligence, the now 14-year-old child has been left profoundly mentally delayed and is considered to be functioning at the level of a year-old child. But the child is physically quite agile.
Greenberg said the child's combination of cognitive delay and mobility "creates demanding requirements for her care."
"I'm so relieved," the now 30-year-old mother said on Friday. The Free Press is not naming the woman to protect her special needs child.
"I just wanted to have a healthy baby. That was my biggest priority. It was a lot of a shock when she did get sick."
As for what she thinks of Dr. Chow, the woman would only say: "I always knew she was wrong. I needed someone to believe me.
"Why didn't she just take accountability for what she did then? We know you were wrong. My daughter was a two-month-old baby when this began and she is now a teenager."
The woman said while she had to take her doctor to court to sue for damages done to her daughter, she loves her child.
"She's my child -- she's my life. I can't imagine being without her."
The judge dismissed lawsuits against Villa Rosa, a facility for single mothers, and Elsie D'Eshambeault who ran the clinic there. Earlier in the lawsuit, a claim against the Misericordia General Hospital was dismissed.
The woman's lead counsel on the lawsuit, Martin Pollock, said the damages assessed, which he says will be more than $4 million, is the "largest award in the history of Manitoba for this type of case.
"Justice Greenberg wrote a scholarly decision... the judge clearly saw through the witnesses and believed my client.
"When there was a contest between my client and the doctor, the doctor wasn't believed."
A message was left at Dr. Chow's office, but she didn't return the call.
Court was told that the child was born on Dec. 17, 1993.
The mother testified that it was after she broke off with the father of her baby that she contracted herpes during unprotected sex after the male assured her he didn't have a sexually transmitted disease.
Court was told the woman told both a staff person at Villa Rosa, and Dr. Chow, that she later heard the male had herpes and she wanted to be tested for it.
The woman was tested for herpes and the results came back negative, but the doctor told the court even if the test had come back positive, she wouldn't have done a caesarian section, the standard delivery for a baby of a mother with herpes. The doctor also didn't send the baby to an infectious disease expert as a precaution.
Medical experts testified that if the woman's baby had been treated with drugs after birth, she would not have contracted herpes.
On Dec. 30, the child had her first seizure.
Since then, court was told that currently the child has to be locked in her room at night because she will wander. As well, she requires constant supervision because she will turn on appliances and is at risk for swallowing small objects.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
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