Reading Hospital to pay $32.5 million to settle suit

Settlement reached after opening statements made in birth injury case

Reading Hospital has agreed to pay $32.5 million to settle a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a boy who suffered brain injuries during his 2018 birth, according to the law firm representing the family.

Philadelphia-based Ross Feller Casey LLP filed a lawsuit against the hospital in 2022 on behalf of the boy’s mother, Miranda Garcia of Reading.

The now 5-year-old boy, who was not named in court documents, suffers from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen.

“No amount of money can adequately compensate this little boy for what happened to him, but the civil justice system does provide a means by which his life, and his parents’ lives, can be made a little better,” Matt Casey, a founding partner of Ross Feller Casey, said in a statement announcing the settlement.

A trial in the case began Monday morning in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas but quickly ended after opening arguments were made when the two sides announced they had reached a settlement.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Reading Hospital officials acknowledged that a settlement was reached, stressing that the agreement does not place blame on the hospital or any of its employees.

“We value and respect the privacy of the family involved in this lawsuit,” the statement reads. “To avoid a protracted public trial and the potential distress it could cause all parties, a resolution was reached without any admission of fault or liability by any health care providers at Reading Hospital.”

The statement concludes by saying that, consistent with Reading Hospital’s longstanding policy, hospital officials do not comment on the specifics of litigation.

According to the allegations in the lawsuit:

A pregnant Garcia was admitted to Reading Hospital in September 2018 after her water broke.

During her labor, the delivery team failed to provide antibiotics when signs of intra-amniotic infection arose and did not properly address signs of fetal distress. Obstetrician Dominic Cammarano, who was listed as a defendant in the case, failed to perform an emergency Cesarean section that could have helped to avoid oxygen deprivation.

The result was that Garcia’s son suffered a severe brain injury. After his birth, he was taken to the Reading Hospital neonatal intensive care unit, where doctors failed to offer the only known treatment for the injury.

The boy today suffers from catastrophic and permanent neurological injuries. He has spastic quadriplegia, is nonverbal, cortically blind and tube-fed.

“He requires around-the-clock care, which his mother has largely shouldered,” Casey said in Tuesday’s statement. “This settlement will help significantly to provide the care he needs and will help his mother navigate what will be an enormously difficult road ahead.”