Dover OB-GYN ordered to pay $3 million in birth injury case

A Superior Court jury issued a $3 million verdict this week against a Dover obstetrician who was accused of forcefully pulling a baby out by his head during delivery, causing the newborn's right arm to be paralyzed.  

The lawsuit filed in 2014 in New Castle County Superior Court alleged that Peter Wong, a doctor with Dedicated to Women OB-GYN on Banning Street, pulled too hard on the baby's head and neck while he was trying to dislodge a stuck shoulder during delivery. That resulted in permanent nerve damage to the baby's right shoulder, according to court documents.

The suit claimed that Wong did not disclose to the mother the risks involved with the 2008 procedure, such as permanent disfigurement. 

"I think it's a fair and just amount," said Wilmington attorney Bruce Hudson, who represented the mother, Monica Broughton, a former Delaware State University student, and her son, Amari Broughton-Fleming, who is now 9. "He's got a lot of living to do with this impairment."

Neither Wong nor his attorneys responded to a request for comment. Wong denied medical negligence in court, arguing that the baby's injuries resulted from the maternal forces of labor.

In an email sent late Thursday, Robert Schacheri, president of Dedicated to Women, said that Wong "acted, at all times, with appropriate care," and is weighing an appeal.

Wong, 55, holds an active medical license, which expires in 2019. Officials with the state Division of Professional Regulation did not respond to a request for comment about whether the recent verdict would affect his professional standing. Legal experts said they expected him to keep his license.

"I've never known a verdict to have affected the ability to practice medicine in Delaware," said Randall Robbins, a medical malpractice attorney in Wilmington.

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Large verdicts are common in birth injury cases, but are relatively rare in Delaware, where medical negligence lawsuits often get settled behind closed doors and civil juries tend to be conservative. Delaware is one of only three states that require unanimous jury verdicts in civil suits, Hudson said.

"That's a very high bar," he said.

Both Hudson and Robbins said they couldn't recall such a significant malpractice award in recent years.

"When the baby suffers an injury at birth, awards are always at the higher end because they're usually life-altering," said Robbins, past president of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association. "No healthy person would ever trade places with the victim."

Broughton, who now lives in Harrisburg, with her mother, said she felt numb upon hearing the verdict Wednesday.

"It shouldn't take 9½ years to get to this point," the 30-year-old single mom said. "Amari faces this for the rest of his life."  

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Diagnosed with gestational diabetes while pregnant, Broughton said she agreed to have doctors at Kent General Hospital induce labor on April 9, 2008. Aware that the baby's shoulder was trapped behind his mother's pelvis, Wong tugged Amari's head in a swift downward motion to try to dislodge it, Broughton said.

Born at 8 pounds, 13 ounces, Amari arrived healthy except for his right arm, which fell limp at his side. He was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. 

Three months later, a pediatric neurologist diagnosed permanent nerve damage in Amari's shoulder, Broughton said. Of the shoulder's network of five nerves, two were ripped in half and the other three were overstretched to the point of not functioning.

Two subsequent surgeries improved Amari's arm mobility, but he still has difficulty zipping his pants. He can't ride a bike, because his wrist curls inward preventing him from steering. He can't touch his stomach with his right arm or bring it behind his head, which limits his competitiveness in soccer, his favorite sport.

When he's resting his arm, a couple fingers twitch uncontrollably, his mother says. His right arm is four inches shorter than his left, which makes suit shopping difficult. 

Hudson said he offered multiple times to settle with Wong's insurer, Alabama-headquartered ProAssurance, but was turned down. The Broughtons still need to pay attorney's fees — typically one-third — out of the $3 million award.

When Amari heard the verdict, he declared: "I'm a millionaire."

His mother knows that jubilation is short-lived.

"He asks if his arm is ever going to be normal," she said. "He wants it to grow." 

With a special interest in high-risk obstetrics, Wong joined Dedicated to Women in 1995 after working at military hospitals in California and Colorado, according to a biography on the practice's website. Several reviews posted to Dedicated to Women's Facebook page praised Wong for his quality of care.

"I became an OB-GYN because I know how important good healthcare is to women and their families and how important it is to provide it in a caring and compassionate way," he wrote on the website. Wong is also affiliated with Eden Hill Medical Center in Dover, according to the center's website.

Court records showed that Wong and other doctors at Dedicated to Women were previously sued for medical malpractice in 2004. That case was settled out of court.

In 2015, Wong was reprimanded and fined $1,000 by the Delaware Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline for prescribing too high a dose of an abortion-inducing medication, according to a consent agreement signed by Wong and state regulators. 

His patient complained after overdosing on the drug in 2013 and experiencing negative side effects, according to state records.

Over the years, high-profile medical malpractice cases have rocked Delaware:

In 2010, a Superior Court jury found that a New Castle doctor was negligent in caring for a newborn boy, resulting in brain damage, and awarded the child's family $6.25 million. The jury found that Phyllis Hames failed to properly treat the child's jaundice, which led to cerebral palsy and other lifelong complications.  

In 2003, a Sussex County Superior Court jury awarded $6.5 million to a former Millsboro resident who claimed that emergency-room doctor Douglas Allen Jr. and nurse practitioner Betty Brittingham released her toddler from Beebe Medical Center too early, leading to the child's death five days later. 

Despite the sizable verdict, the family's take-home award was capped at $750,000 under an agreement reached between the plaintiff's lawyer and the defendants' insurer. 

The cost of OB-GYN medical malpractice insurance has dramatically increased over the past decade since it's considered a high-risk specialty. Other states cap non-economic damages in medical negligence cases. In California, the limit is $250,000,

To reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits, in 2003, Delaware enacted a law requiring "affidavits of merit" to accompany medical malpractice filings. Alleged victims of medical negligence must submit an affidavit from a medical expert validating that a defendant was negligent.

After the law took effect, the number of malpractice lawsuits filed annually in New Castle County dropped from 82 to 67. 

So far this year, 35 medical malpractice cases have been filed in New Castle County Superior Court, according to Linda Carmichael, the court's chief staff attorney.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.