A Utah family received one of the largest medical malpractice awards in history after a judge determined that a hospital’s negligent care during childbirth left their daughter permanently brain-damaged.
Anyssa Zancanella won $951 million in damages against Jordan Valley Medical Center West Valley Campus after the facility’s medical staff failed to provide adequate care during her daughter’s birth in October 2019.
Third District Judge Patrick Corum delivered a scathing assessment of the hospital’s performance, stating that Zancanella “would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital.”
The judge declared the medical center “literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth.”
Zancanella traveled from Wyoming to the Salt Lake City area when her water broke during a short trip.
Located hours away from her regular doctor, the family sought emergency care at the Jordan Valley facility, which was operated by the now-defunct Steward Health Care system.
The lawsuit revealed that medical staff administered excessive doses of Pitocin, a labor-inducing medication, to Zancanella during her stay at the hospital.
Hospital nurses assigned to Zancanella lacked proper experience