$1.5 Million

Stewart Casper handled the case of the stillbirth of a male fetus at 34 weeks of gestation. The mother was overweight and had gestational diabetes. On Saturday evening, she reported that her baby was not moving. She was seen in the labor and delivery room of the local hospital by the on-call member of the obstetrical practice. She had an equivocal non-stress test, but was nonetheless discharged without further testing or monitoring, and told to count the baby’s movements. She felt only two slight movements for the rest of the evening, which she reported to the obstetrician. The next morning she felt one slight movement that was reported. Throughout that day, she experienced increasing abdominal pain and returned to the hospital late in the afternoon. There was no fetal heartbeat. Labor was induced, and she delivered the dead baby vaginally 42 hours later.