Former midwife sued by patient
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By Brent Curtis Staff Writer - Published: October 9, 2005
A former Mendon midwife and one of her students is being sued by a woman who claims that her 21-month-old son suffered permanent brain damage during birth.
In a lawsuit filed in Rutland Superior Court last week, Lori Stellato of Mendon alleges that former midwife Roberta Devers-Scott and midwife-in-training Adrienne Mulholland of Brandon were negligent on several counts while helping to deliver her son in January 2004.
Stellato's son is referred to by the initials B.M. in the complaint.
"As a direct and proximate cause of Devers-Scott's negligence, B.M. suffered brain damage and many other injuries, including seizures that will last the rest of his life," Stellato's lawyer, Mark Furlan, wrote in the complaint.
Furlan wrote that his client was seeking compensatory, punitive and other unspecified damages.
Roberta Devers-Scott, 42, who practiced midwifery in Mendon for 18 years, in December lost her right to practice or teach midwifery, or to consult in prenatal care. The state took that action after a 10-month investigation into two births that ended with the death of one infant and complications during Stellato's delivery that state officials have said resulted in brain damage to the child.
Charges brought by the state Office of Professional Regulation ranged from allegations that the midwife didn't keep accurate records and didn't obtain the necessary consent forms, to more serious charges that she didn't exercise due care in consulting doctors or transporting her patients to local hospitals when complications developed that might have threatened her patients' lives.
Devers-Scott settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money in January with a Rutland couple whose son died during childbirth in January 2004.
Devers-Scott has maintained that she provided responsible care to her patients and has petitioned the state to reinstate her license.
Her lawyer, Lisa Chalidze, said Friday that she would soon file official denials to Stellato's complaint.
"I plan on mounting a vigorous defense," she said. "We have disputed all along that Roberta did anything wrong. I was surprised to see this suit come along."
Mulholland's attorney, Peter Langrock, said his client was denying the claims of negligence as well.
"When the facts become known I think it will be clear my client was more of a help in the situation than part of the problem," Langrock said Friday.
Mulholland was studying under Devers-Scott in 2003 and 2004. Most of Stellato's labor took place at Mulholland's former Pittsford home, according to the lawsuit.
The suit contends that Devers-Scott and her student erred and violated the rules for midwife conduct in a number of ways. It claims they failed to obtain required consent forms, failed to maintain proper medical records, and physically restrained Stellato from calling for an ambulance when she feared her baby was in jeopardy.
"Plaintiff insisted on being transported to a hospital for delivery of her child," Furlan wrote in the lawsuit. "However, both Devers-Scott and Mulholland refused to call an ambulance and physically prevented (Stellato) from calling for an ambulance."
Roughly seven hours after Stellato went into labor, Devers-Scott did call Porter Hospital in Middlebury and arranged to move her patient by ambulance.
The ride to Middlebury took about 40 minutes, according to the lawsuit, while Rutland Regional Medical Center was less than 20 minutes away.
Eleven hours after she went into labor, Stellato delivered her son by Caesarean section.
Furlan wrote that Stellato's son required respiration and emergency treatment immediately after delivery due to septic infection and hypoxia to the brain. The infant was subsequently diagnosed with cerebral infarctions, or dead areas of tissue on the brain, at Fletcher-Allen Health Care, according to the lawsuit.
However, Chalidze on Friday shared documents of testimony — gathered during hearings in front of the state regulators — that she said proved the complaints were unfounded on many points.
Excerpts of interviews with Stellato and a doctor that examined her baby shortly after birth cast doubt on Stellato's willingness to be brought to Rutland Regional Medical Center, as well as to the extent of her baby's injuries, Chalidze said.
In an affidavit Chalidze provided from Dr. Jack Mayer, who examined Stellato's baby, Mayer said, "I acknowledge that my letter … was in error in stating that the Stellato infant suffered fetal hypoxic brain injury. I made this statement based on reports from the neo-natal intensive care unit at Fletcher Allen Health Center stating that fetal hypoxic brain injury was a possible diagnosis."
Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.
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