Nearly a billion dollars was awarded to a family after their child was left permanently disabled due to hospital negligence.
The botched birth of baby Azaylee has led to a Utah judge calling Steward Health Care “the most dangerous place on the planet” for a baby to be born.
“I never imagined my life to be what it is today,” Azaylee’s mother, Anyssa Zancanella, said on social media.
Highlights
- A Utah judge awarded nearly a billion dollars to a family over their child's botched birth.
- Anyssa Zancanella filed a lawsuit and accused Steward Health Care of leaving her daughter with brain damage.
- The lawsuit claimed that Azaylee was delivered with a “swollen face” and a “misshapen head.”
Nearly a billion dollars was awarded to a family after their child was left permanently disabled
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella / Facebook
Anyssa had a healthy pregnancy while carrying her firstborn baby, Azaylee.
But things took a turn on October 12, 2019, when her water broke during a short getaway from their Wyoming home to Salt Lake City.
The mother had no choice but to get admitted to a local hospital.
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella / Facebook
At the time, the defunct Steward Health Care, which is now the Jordan Valley Medical Center, had allegedly assigned nurses who had barely finished their training.
Some reports said the nurses had finished their training the very same day Anyssa went into labor.
Azaylee's botched delivery took place when Anyssa's water broke during a getaway to Salt Lake City
Image credits: nyssa_z / Instagram
“This was the very first, or one of the very first times, that either of the assigned bedside nurses had individually been assigned a laboring patient,” the lawsuit alleged.
The nurses pushed “excessive” amounts of the labor-inducing medication Pitocin for hours and then allegedly ignored her.
Image credits: azayleesjourney / TikTok
When the staff later checked on her, they found the baby had an alarming blood pressure level, while the mother had a fever.
The nurses informed the on-call doctor, who allegedly went back to sleep in a room that was just a few feet away.
The on-call doctor allegedly went back to sleep after nurses informed him about the baby's alarming blood pressure
“[The obstetrician] abandoned mother and fetus/infant when she was fully aware of significant and dangerous issues with the ongoing labor process and the ongoing health and well-being of the fetus,” the lawsuit was quoted as saying.
The family alleged that Anyssa was in the hospital for more than a day until a C-section was finally performed.
Image credits: azayleesjourney / TikTok
But by then, Azaylee had already suffered brain damage from being deprived of oxygen.
The lawsuit claimed that Azaylee was delivered with a “swollen face” and a “misshapen head.” The front of her scalp also allegedly had bruises and was bulging.
Azaylee, now aged 5, may never do ordinary things like work, attend college, or drive a car
Image credits: azayleesjourney / TikTok
The botched delivery left Azaylee, now aged 5, with permanent medical conditions that she has to live with for the rest of her life.
“[She] sustained damages, including but not limited to, permanent neurological and cognitive damages, physical damages, emotional damages, limitations in physical, cognitive and mental function, as well as pain and suffering,” stated the lawsuit.
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella / Facebook
Anyssa spoke about how her daughter is nonverbal and has regular seizures and needs constant care because of her condition.
They even sleep in the same bed because her 5-year-old is afraid of sleeping alone.
She lacks the cognitive functioning of other 5-year-olds and receives physical and occupational therapy.
“[Azaylee] had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us. She is trapped,” the mother said
The family was also informed by doctors that Azaylee may never do ordinary things like work, attend college, or drive a car.
“[Azaylee] had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us. She is trapped,” Anyssa said in her testimony. “I know that my daughter is in there, but she can't come out and I think of that every day.”
Image credits: nyssa_z / Instagram
Third District Judge Patrick Corum awarded Anyssa, her partner Daniel McMichael, and their daughter $951 million.
The awarded amount is reportedly the largest in Utah’s history.
The mother “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,” the judge said.
The family was awarded $951 million, the highest amount in Utah's history
Image credits: nyssa_z / Instagram
“Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth,” he continued.
The judge agreed that Azaylee was robbed of the chance to become the person she “deserved to be.”
Image credits: Anyssa Zancanella / Facebook
“The person she was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child,” the judge continued.
“I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss.”
“This is heartbreaking,” one netizen commented online
