California: Cerebral Palsy Settlement for 2 1/2 Year Old Boy Establishes $4 Million Annuity That Will Pay $15,000/mo.

The Visalia Times Delta reports that Sierra View District Hospital in Porterville, CA, has agreed to pay $4 million to a 2 1/2-year-old boy in a malpractice-case settlement, attorneys for both sides said Wednesday.

The $4 million would be used to purchase an annuity that would pay the boy $15,000 per month to start, said Dr. Bruce Fagel, a physician-attorney who regularly represents families of children injured at birth. That sum would rise 3 percent a year, paying the boy $45 million "over his life expectancy...."

For more details on the birth injury and settement, see the full article here. See another report in the Fresno Bee.

Cooling Blanket Reduces Brain Damage at Birth (Neonatal Therapeutic Hypothermia)

Medical News Today reports on neonatal therapeutic hypothermia protocol at Children's Hospital in Boston in press release from Cincinnati Sub-Zero: Minimizing Neurological Damage From Infant At-Birth Trauma With Moderate Whole-Body Cooling - Children's Hospital Boston.

Approximately one in every 1,000 babies suffers from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a loss of oxygen at birth. Clinical studies indicate therapeutic hypothermia, including whole-body cooling begun within six hours after birth, reduces brain injury associated with the hypoxic- ischemic exposure, minimizing or avoiding consequences that might otherwise include cerebral palsy or severe cognitive and visual impairments. Depending on the severity of hypoxia-ischemia, up to 50% of babies may sustain neurological damage or death without the therapy.

Following nationwide trials involving 500 infants, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) concluded in 2005 that not using therapeutic hypothermia for treating HIE resulted in greater neurological damage. Physicians at Children's Hospital Boston instituted a protocol beginning in July 2007. Using the CSZ Blanketrol® II Hypo-Hyperthermia System with CSZ cooling/warming blankets, physicians cool an infant's F) for 72 hours before rewarming to normal body temperature.

WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Boston recently broadcast a story about the successful use of the technique in a series called Miracle of Mia. The videos document the story of Mia Ordway, newborn daughter Glenn Ordway, "one of only 11 babies to have used the cooling blanket since Children's Hospital got it last summer. Now 4 months old, she's thriving." See the video here.