Botched birth results in $19 million award

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill., Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The federal government has been found liable for millions of dollars in damages for a botched birth procedure at an Illinois hospital.

U.S. District Judge David Herndon in East St. Louis ordered the federal government and hospital pay a Belleville woman $19 million. Kimberly Coleman's 5-year-old son developed brain damage and cerebral palsy because of errors at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville.

Herndon ruled a physician improperly used a vacuum extractor while attempting to deliver her son in 1998.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Dr. Charles Davis was considered a federal employee because his employer, the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation, receives federal funds. The government was named as a defendant but Davis was not.

The doctor testified he used the vacuum device on the child 15 times, despite a manufacturer's warning it be used no more than three times. The procedure cut off oxygen to the infant's brain, resulting in permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy.