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Air Force pays $5M for childbirth malpractice

The Air Force has paid a civilian employee $5 million for severe brain damage suffered by his baby during childbirth at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan.

William Duckworth was working as a golf course superintendent at Kadena Air Base, Japan, in September 2004 when his wife, Lindsey, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Aubrey.

The mother’s uterus ruptured during the birth and the baby was deprived of oxygen for a prolonged time. Aubrey is now severely disabled — she suffers from spastic cerebral palsy and blindness and has to be fed through a surgical tube implanted in her stomach, according to Patrick Malone, the family’s attorney.

Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne approved the settlement last month, Malone said, and the family recently received the payment. Most of the settlement money will go into a trust to pay Aubrey’s medical and nursing bills, he said.

“This money in no way makes up for the terrible and unnecessary tragedy that happened to the Duckworths,” Malone said in a statement. “We hope that this will help encourage military hospitals to be more vigilant in how they manage childbirth.”

The Duckworths now live in Louisiana, where William works at Barksdale Air Force Base and Lindsey works as a teacher.

According to a press release issued by Malone, the family brought a claim under the Military Claims Act alleging that a nurse midwife, Laura A. Bennett, was grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice for trying to manage a complex and high-risk delivery without calling in an obstetrician.

Even though the birth took place at a Navy hospital, the Air Force is responsible under federal regulations because it has “single service authority” over injury claims at all U.S. government facilities in Japan, according to the press release.