Woman Rendered Infertile Awarded $2.5M
A Milford Mill woman was awarded $2.5 million Monday from a Baltimore obstetrics practice for not diagnosing an ectopic, or tubal, pregnancy that ultimately rendered her infertile.
Lutrice Williams required emergency surgery to remove her ruptured left fallopian tube in February 2008, two years after she had her right Fallopian tube removed due to another ectopic pregnancy.
Though Williams missed time at work and incurred medical expenses because of the 2008 surgery, her lawyer only asked the Baltimore City Circuit Court jury for non-economic damages from Metropolitan OB/GYN Associates LLC.
“The economic damages paled in comparison to what she lost,” said H. Briggs Bedigian. “We wanted to keep the jury focused on the human element.”
Thomas C. Morrow, a lawyer for Metropolitan and one of its nurse midwives, Tarnisha Hemphill, said he had not yet talked with his client about an appeal.
The cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases would reduce Williams’ award to $650,000, said Bedigian, of Wais & Vogelstein in Pikesville. Bedigian and his firm are challenging the constitutionality of the non-economic damages cap in another case to be heard Friday by the Court of Appeals.
