After years of intense work and a two-week, hard-fought trial, Raynes McCarty attorneys Timothy Lawn and Stephen Raynes persuaded a Delaware County jury to award more than $40 million to a six-year-old Grayson Charlton who is paralyzed from her mid-chest down. Her lawyers maintained she suffered traumatic spinal cord injuries during her birth at Delaware County Memorial Hospital. The verdict, which totaled $40,258,000 and will be increased by delay damages to be more than $47 million, is believed to be the largest personal injury verdict ever awarded in the County. The defendant doctor and hospital never made a settlement offer.
During the trial, Lawn presented expert testimony from a maternal fetal medicine specialist, a pediatric neuroradiologist, a placental pathologist, a pediatric neurologist and pediatric spinal surgeon. Together, these physicians detailed how the baby’s injuries could only have occurred with excessive traction during her delivery. They collectively made it clear that the obstetrician failed to protect the baby’s neck during delivery and damaged the spinal cord.
“This was a vigorously defended case in which the defendants argued that the care was proper, and that the injuries occurred well before she was delivered. We knew that was medically inaccurate and set out to prove that improper care caused this catastrophic injury,” said Lawn.
The verdict was handed up Tuesday evening in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge Charles Burr’s courtroom. The jury awarded $40.26 million, including $10 million for Charlton’s past and future pain and suffering, with the rest of the award going toward future economic damages.