© Jose A. IglesiasMarla Dixon with her 3 yr-old son EJ at their home in Miami Gardens. EJ was born with hypoxic ischemic-encephalopathy, a form of permanent brain damage. He will need a lifetime of round-the-clock medical care, including a nurse and future surgeries, and daily medications. In April, a federal judge ruled that the doctor who delivered EJ failed to offer or perform an emergency Cesarean section delivery, which may have prevented EJ’s brain damage. The doctor blamed Dixon and falsified her patient record to make it appear that she had refused.
Marla Dixon was in the final stage of labor and ready to deliver a baby boy when the obstetrician arrived at her bedside at North Shore Medical Center in Miami.
It was not a high-risk pregnancy. But over the next 90 minutes, the doctor made a series of missteps that led to a tragic outcome for Dixon and her baby — and a $33.8 million malpractice judgment, according to a federal lawsuit.
The doctor
ordered nurses to restart a drug to strengthen contractions, failed to perform a Cesarean section — and walked away from Dixon's room for long periods, once for an eight-minute phone call from his stockbroker, the verdict said.
By the time the baby was delivered on Dec. 2, 2013, he was blue in the face and his limbs were limp, according to the verdict handed down by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola. It took a medical team to revive the infant, named Earl, Jr., and by then he had severe brain damage from lack of oxygen, according to the lawsuit filed by Dixon and the boy's father, Earl Reese-Thornton, Sr.
The doctor, Dixon said later, blamed her for not pushing hard enough. He also
tried to cover his tracks by falsifying the 19-year-old mother's medical record with a note that made it appear she had refused a C-section, according to the testimony of the nurse in charge of delivery.
For Dixon, the court's judgment will help pay for a lifetime of round-the-clock care for her son, but it does not go far enough.
"Not one time did he apologize," Dixon said of the doctor, whose name is Ata Atogho.
"He didn't care. He kept going on with his lies. He blamed me."
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