PRINCETON – A Virginia woman says negligent medical care during and after his birth has resulted in permanent injuries to her 17-month-old son.
Laken Robinett of Tazewell County, Virginia, filed her complaint June 16 in Mercer Circuit Court against Princeton Community Hospital Association Inc., Dr. Randy M. Brodnik, Dr. Amira Khokar, Dr. Pradeep Siwach and Carilion Medical Center in Roanoke, Virginia.
According to the complaint, Robinett was admitted to Princeton Community Hospital on Christmas Day 2020 in active pre-term labor with acute vaginal bleeding and a history of oligohydramnios. Brodnik delivered the baby later that day. Khokar was the attention physician.
diTrapano
Because of the pre-term delivery and dire medical condition, the baby was transferred later Christmas Day to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s Carilion Medical Center, where he was under the care of Siwach. The boy stayed in the NICU there until March 18, 2021.
The complaint says the boy’s post-natal course was complicated by E. Coli meningitis, vetriculitis/ventriculomegaly and seizures that have resulted in “disabling and permanent neurological injuries” because of the doctors’ deviations from the standard of care.
It says both Brodnik and Khokar – as well as Princeton Community Hospital vicariously – failed to culture Robinett’s placenta and amniotic fluid given the premature birth, low amniotic fluid and presumptive diagnosis of sepsis at birth and was otherwise negligent.
The complaint also says Siwach – and Carilion Medical Center vicariously – failed to timely evaluate and treat signs and symptoms of the boy’s respiratory failure and decreased feedings while he was a patient until the development of meningitis, other intercranial infection and the consequences of those infections.
“The combined negligence of the defendants resulted in profound injuries to Laken Robinett’s newborn son,” attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “He cannot crawl at 17 months, remains on anti-seizure medicine, gets therapy three days a week, and has severe cognitive deficits.
“Our hope is that this case provides the care this baby boy needs for the remainder of his life.”
Robinett seeks compensatory damages for past and future medical expenses, past and future pain and suffering, past and future loss of earnings, past and future annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life. She also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
The plaintiffs are being represented by diTrapano and David H. Carriger of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Dr. Richard D. Lindsay and Richard D. Lindsay II of Tabor Lindsay & Associates in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge William Sadler.
Mercer Circuit Court case number 22-C-98