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Jurors weigh malpractice verdict in death of West Boca woman during childbirth

Oct 25, 2007 | Nancy L. Othón | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

What happened to Susan Special - her death immediately after giving birth - was unpredictable, unpreventable and catastrophic, attorneys for West Boca Medical Center and her anesthesiologist said Thursday.

Jurors weighing the medical malpractice claims against Dr. Ivo Baux and the hospital brought by Special's husband, Frank Special, listened to two vastly differing views on how the 38-year-old Boca Raton woman died in June 2003 after a Caesarean section.

They deliberated for less than two hours Thursday afternoon before going home. They will reconvene this morning before Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley.

Special's lawyers agree that her death was catastrophic. But it was entirely preventable, attorney Andrew Yaffa said.

Susan Special's water had broken about a month early and doctors decided she should have a Caesarean because her baby was in the breech position.

Baux did not properly monitor Susan Special's vital signs after administering a spinal epidural and did not properly respond to signs that her condition was becoming grave, Yaffa said.

"We believe his mistakes caused this poor lady's death and we believe his mistakes breached a standard of care," Yaffa said.

That alleged negligence, said attorney Gary Cohen, should cost West Boca and Baux millions, at least $10 million in economic damages as well as for pain and suffering to Frank Special and his 4-year-old son, Nicholas.

Attorneys for Baux and West Boca strongly dispute that Susan Special died of any anesthesia-related complications. Experts testified that she died of an amniotic fluid embolism, a severe allergic reaction to fetal fluids in her circulation.

Those experts contradicted testimony and an autopsy report from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office. Defense experts said amniotic fluid embolism frequently leaves no evidence to be found in an autopsy.

The evidence overwhelmingly supports the defense, said West Boca attorney Scott Michaud, who urged jurors not to get "swept away in a sea of sympathy."

"While it's OK to feel sympathy for the Specials, it's not OK to let that sympathy influence your feelings in this case," he said.

Every member of the medical staff in the operating room showed heroic efforts in trying to save Susan Special's life, Michaud said.

Baux, in particular, responded immediately to her crisis, Michaud said.

The anesthesiologist had performed spinal anesthesia for Caesarean sections at least 800 times without incident and did nothing different that morning in June 2003, Michaud said.

Special's attorneys, however, countered that if Baux had been paying attention and properly reacting to signs that Special was deteriorating, she never would have died.

"There are things in this world that only a mother can provide, and this child is never going to have it," Yaffa said.