Hospital Ordered to Pay Over $270,000 for Stillbirth Due to Negligence

The Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak has been ordered to pay over one million shekels (approximately $270,000) to a couple whose daughter was stillborn during their mother's hospitalization. Senior Judge Ido Rozin of the Herzliya Magistrate's Court ruled that the medical team was negligent in monitoring the mother and the fetus, and that the hospital was also responsible for the infant's burial in a mass grave of stillborns without the parents' presence.

The mother, in her third and final trimester of pregnancy, arrived at the hospital on December 11, 2021, with clear water breaking. She was admitted for observation. Hours later, the fetus died from asphyxiation due to a prolapsed umbilical cord that restricted blood and oxygen flow. The parents alleged extreme medical negligence, claiming the staff failed to monitor the fetal heartbeat and ignored the mother's complaints.

Judge Rozin found the hospital fully liable for the tragic death and the non-pecuniary damages suffered by the parents. He noted that the mother's condition, including intermittent and deep decelerations in the fetal heartbeat, was not adequately addressed. Despite a prolonged deceleration lasting up to 90 seconds, the nurse disconnected the mother from the fetal monitor without informing a doctor. The judge accepted the court-appointed expert's opinion that the nurses' actions were clearly negligent, that they failed to update doctors, and that a timely vaginal examination, which was warranted, was not performed.

The hospital had argued that the death was caused by a rare and unforeseeable umbilical cord accident. However, the court-appointed expert, Dr. Eliezer Hornstein, determined that the mother's case was high-risk and required continuous, meticulous monitoring. He stated that if the mother had been examined or continuously monitored after 4:46 PM, the fetal distress and umbilical cord prolapse would likely have been diagnosed in time, and the baby could have been saved. The judge also criticized the hospital for not presenting any of the staff directly involved in the incident as witnesses.

Furthermore, the court found the hospital negligent in the burial process. Despite the parents explicitly stating their desire to participate in the burial, their daughter was interred in a communal grave of stillborns without their knowledge, without the recitation of Kaddish, and in an unknown location. The judge rejected the hospital's claim that the responsibility lay with the ZAKA organization, stating that hospital procedures placed the coordination with the burial society on the hospital itself. This failure, the judge ruled, severely violated the parents' constitutional right to mourn and visit their daughter's grave.

The total compensation awarded amounts to approximately 1.1 million shekels, including 874,000 shekels for pain and suffering, loss of autonomy, and injury to the dignity of the deceased, plus legal fees and expenses. The hospital has 60 days to appeal the ruling.