Medical Negligence And Texas Law On Birth Wrongful Death

Hinojosa v. Columbia / St. David's Healthcare System involved a wrongful death and survival claim brought by the parents of a child who died from alleged medical negligence during labor and delivery. The matter at issue was whether or not there was a “live birth.” Under Texas law, if the child was stillborn (not a “live birth”), neither a wrongful death nor a survival claim could be brought on the dead child's behalf, and the claims would be dismissed.

The defendant health care providers moved for dismissal of the claims on the basis that the child was stillborn. In support of their position, the defendants submitted numerous affidavits and sworn testimony from health care providers present for the child's delivery establishing that at the time of birth the child had no heart tones, there was no indication that the child ever breathed following birth, and they were unsuccessful in their attempts to resuscitate the child. A neonatologist who came to attempt to resuscitate the child, and who was not a defendant, testified that he did not believe the child had been born “alive.” Moreover, the autopsy report referred to the child as “stillborn” and concluded that based on examination of the child's lungs, in reasonable medical probability, the child “had not breathed following delivery”.

Despite this overwhelming medical evidence that the child was not born alive, the court denied the defendants' request for dismissal because of the information contained in the child's death certificate. The death certificate listed the child's “duration of life” at 20 minutes, and the court held that that constituted prima facie evidence that the child “survived live birth”