A Utah judge has awarded nearly $1 billion to a family after finding a hospital liable for serious birth injuries sustained by their daughter.
Anyssa Zancanella and Danniel McMicheal filed the lawsuit in 2021.
The award stems from a botched delivery that left their daughter, Azaylee, 5, with a lifetime of disabilities following her birth at Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Valley City on October 14, 2019.
Highlights
- A Utah judge awarded nearly $1 billion to a family for medical malpractice causing lifelong birth injuries.
- Nurses gave excessive Pitocin doses despite rising fetal blood pressure; the on-call doctor reportedly slept through labor complications.
- The baby was born with severe injuries, including a misshapen head, requiring ICU care and daily seizure management.
A Utah judge awarded nearly $1 billion to a family after finding the hospital liable for birth injuries
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella
Earlier this month, Judge Patrick Corum ordered Dallas-based Steward Health Care to pay $951 million to the family for medical malpractice.
The suit alleged that nurses at the hospital gave Zancanella dangerous doses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin.
The nurses had just finished their training the day Zancanella was admitted, and the on-call physician reportedly slept in a nearby room while the labor progressed.
Azaylee was not delivered until more than a day later, after a long-overdue cesarean section. The suit alleged that the nurses gave “excessive” amounts of Pitocin for hours, despite the baby’s rising blood pressure, and the fact that the drug wasn’t working to dilate Zancanella.
The suit also claimed that when the nurses informed the doctor of the mother’s fever and the baby’s rising blood pressure, the doctor simply went back to sleep.
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella
Azaylee was delivered with a “misshapen head,” a “swollen face,” and “bruising and bulging on the front of her scalp,” according to the suit.
She was then airlifted to the Primary Children’s Hospital intensive care unit in Salt Lake City for complications, including a lack of sufficient oxygen during labor.
Azaylee now experiences frequent seizures, is mostly non-verbal, and requires round-the-clock care.
Doctors have said it is likely she will never be able to perform normal activities such as attending college, working, or driving.
Azaylee’s seizures are so frequent that her parents and younger sister sleep in a giant bed to be close to her in case she has one during the night.
They also take oxygen with them everywhere they go to help with the seizures.
The on-call physician reportedly slept in a room during labor complications
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella
In his statement, Judge Patrick Corum described the hospital as “the most dangerous place on the planet” for childbirth.
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,” he said at the hearing.
“The person [Azaylee] was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child,” Judge Corum said. “I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss.”
The family is not the only one the hospital is in debt to. Steward Health Care filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2024 after owing billions to other creditors.
While collecting the full amount may prove to be difficult, lawyers for the family hope to recover at least the punitive damages, or part of the total award.
Steward Health Care previously denied the allegations in court filings in May 2024, and lawyers later asked to be withdrawn from the case after the hospital failed to pay their fees.
The hospital never replaced its representation and was sold to CommonSpirit Health and renamed Holy Cross Hospital-West Valley two years ago.
Zancanella said that Azaylee “had her life stolen” during a three-day bench trial.
“She is trapped. I know that my daughter is in there, but she can’t come out and I think of that every day,” she said.
Azaylee attends kindergarten for only a few hours per day and requires physical and occupational therapy.
Steward has 90 days from August 8 to file an appeal.