Illinois family awarded $28m after son's birth leaves him with brain damage

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A Cook County jury has awarded $28 million to a family after their child suffered permanent brain damage during childbirth. The boy's mother, Teray Boyd, alleged that doctors ignored signs of fetal distress during labour and failed to perform an emergency C-section, resulting in severe injuries that will leave her son with lifelong disabilities, FOX 32 Chicago reports.

A medical negligence lawsuit

Teray Boyd’s attorney, Stephen Blecha of Coplan + Crane, said the pregnancy went smoothly, but everything changed when she went into labour in December 2023 at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago. The complaint argues that when warning signs emerged during labour, the doctors should have performed an emergency C-section but fell below the accepted standard of care. It says the medical team failed to recognise abnormal fetal heart rate patterns and continued administering Pitocin, a drug used to induce labour, even as warning signs appeared.

According to the complaint, no C-section was performed. The mother has sued five doctors who practised at the hospital. The hospital itself was not named as a defendant.The attorney stated that on 9 December, the fetal monitor showed that the baby was not receiving enough oxygenated blood. In his view, that reading should have led doctors to abandon the plan for a vaginal delivery. “They were planning on a vaginal delivery, and they needed to change the plan to a C-section; unfortunately, that was never done, and young Lenyx was born on the verge of death,” Blecha argued.

The baby, Lenyx, was born in critical condition. He needed resuscitation and spent a long period in the neonatal intensive care unit. Blecha says a sharp drop in oxygen and blood flow to Lenyx’s brain caused a severe injury. He argues that the damage could have been prevented if doctors had handled the delivery differently. “In this case, Lenyx was not tolerating that labour, he was not getting enough oxygen, and it was there to be seen and it was there to be acted upon, and for one reason or another that maybe nobody will ever know, it was not acted upon that night,” the attorney said.

As a result, Lenyx suffered permanent brain damage, which will lead to lifelong disabilities.The jury’s $28 million verdict came more than two years after Boyd filed suit. The boy turns three on 10 December.“We’re thankful the jury returned a $28 million verdict in favour of our client. The jury recognised that the doctors failed to meet the standard of care, and that their errors changed the course of this family’s life.

What happened to Teray and Lenyx did not end in the delivery room. Lenyx will live with a lifelong disability, and Teray has devoted herself to his care. It’s essential that medical professionals and institutions are held to the highest standard of care, because patients and their families trust them with their lives.

We hope this verdict gives Teray and Lenyx the resources and security they need to move forward,” Coplan + Crane partners Ben Crane and Stephen Blecha said in a statement.Following the incident, Boyd has turned her experience into public service. She started the Beautiful Blossoming Women Foundation, which supports young women preparing to become mothers. She also founded the Live 4 Lenyx Foundation, which supports children with disabilities and complex medical needs.