Nine-year-old Greyson Griepentrog and his mother Krystle received a $31.5 million jury award on November 17 in a medical malpractice case. Greyson was born with brain damage that resulted in cerebral palsy and now needs lifelong care. The Griepentrogs’ lawyer successfully argued that the health system and doctor were negligent in his brain injury and resulting disabilities.
Oxygen Deprivation and Cerebral Palsy
Krystle Griepentrog filed the lawsuit on behalf of her son in 2020. She delivered her son, Greyson at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix on June 1, 2014. At that time, he suffered a birth injury that left him with a cerebral palsy diagnosis and several limiting disabilities.
Griepentrog’s lawyers argued that the inappropriate use of Pitocin was responsible for depriving Greyson of oxygen at birth. Pitocin is a drug used to induce labor and works by promoting uterine contractions. Too much Pitocin can lead to strong contractions that deprive a baby of oxygen. Oxygen loss at this critical time can lead to brain injuries and later disabilities.
The family’s lawyer claimed in the trial that the nurses should have turned off the Pitocin sooner in Griepentrog’s case. She got too much Pitocin, and this led directly to Greyson’s brain damage. He was born with a low heart rate of just 54 beats per minute. He wasn’t breathing and was blue.
If the nurses and doctor in charge had followed hospital policy, they would have reduced Pitocin and avoided the injury to Greyson. Griepentrog’s lawyers also failed to find any record of fetal heart rate monitoring in Greyson’s record, an important oversight that could have contributed to his injury.
The Lawsuit and Verdict
Krystle Griepentrog sued the hospital and Dr. Laurie Erickson in 2020, when Greyson was six years old. Greyson is now nine years old and lives with severe cerebral palsy. He has several challenges, including being unable to walk or dress himself without assistance. He requires regular physical therapy and other treatments.
The trial began in November 2023 and lasted 16 days. The jury returned a $31.5 million verdict that assigned 57% of the blame to Banner Health and the rest to Dr. Erickson. Erickson was dismissed before the trial began and will not have to pay her percentage of the verdict.
Banner Health is responsible for about $20 million of the award. This includes $2 million in fees assigned due to the fact that the verdict was more than the Griepentrogs’ original offer to settle for $7 million, which Banner rejected in favor of a trial.
Both Banner and Erickson denied any responsibility for Greyson’s injury before, during, and after the trial. The $31.5 million award is the highest ever awarded for a medical malpractice case in Arizona. Pitocin and failure to monitor fetal heart rate continue to come up in cases in which doctors and hospitals are found negligent. Too many babies are harmed by these preventable errors.
