Episode Details:
Episode 092: Kenneth Suggs | Phillips v. Flexible Family Care, P.C. and Lynette Iles, M.D. | $18.126 million verdict
Listen as Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey, of the Great Trials Podcast, interview award-winning trial lawyer Ken Suggs, principal at JJS Justice. Suggs explains how he successfully represented Taylor Phillips, a young girl whose spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy was caused by her mother’s mismanaged labor and delivery at a hospital in Washington, Iowa. Lisa Phillips entered the hospital for the induced labor of her second child by Dr. Lynette Iles, a family physician who physically checked on Lisa only a few times throughout the day and relied mostly on continuous external fetal monitoring to inform her about the baby’s health. As the delivery drew closer, Dr. Iles chose to move to intermittent external fetal monitoring, despite the lack of consistent heartbeat readings and missed key indications that the baby was struggling. Taylor was delivered through cesarean section by a different doctor and airlifted to a neonatal intensive care unit for the brain damage she sustained during the period of intermittent fetal monitoring. Due to her traumatic birth, Taylor is a locked-in quadriplegic who cannot speak and who cannot live independently. A Washington County, Iowa jury returned a landmark verdict of $18,126,000 against Washington County Hospital, Dr. Iles, and her medical practice for violating the standard of care.