Ohio medical malpractice awards obviously vary in the recovery amounts involved, and it is difficult to state with certainty what is the largest amount ever awarded by a jury in the state. Some legal experts point to a $31 million jury award in the summer of 2009 against Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, the defendant in a birth injury case. A settlement agreement made it unlikely that the hospital ever paid that actual amount.

A tragic birth injury case in Connecticut has now resulted in what many people believe to be the largest award ever in that state for a malpractice lawsuit. In a month-long trial just concluded, a jury has awarded a family $58 million in a suit alleging that a doctor unreasonably delayed performing a cesarean section, with the result that the family's infant son suffered severe brain damage and developed cerebral palsy.

The complaint stated that the required medical professionals for such a delivery were not on hand, that the delivering doctor failed to accurately determine the infant's body position before conducting the operation, and that the family was not advised of the risks involved.

The result was a loss of oxygen causing brain injuries that the jury concluded resulted in irreversible damage and severe developmental issues. The child is now eight years old and suffers from a host of problems, including seizures.

Related Resource: About Lawsuits, "Connecticut Cerebral Palsy Malpractice Suit Results in $58M Jury Award" May 28, 2011