Defense secures win in medical malpractice birth injury case

A nurse won her case before a jury after the child she helped deliver sued. The child was born with cerebral palsy, and her attorney and parent argued the condition was preventable.

The case stems from a labor and delivery on July 3, 2001, when the plaintiff’s mother, Heather Simmerman, gave birth to her. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by the mother as next friend and her daughter, Alexis, was substituted as the plaintiff when she turned 18.

Both Simmermans, represented by Brennan Delaney and Summer Davidson of Langdon & Emison in Independence, claim the defendant Sonia Demisch R.N. breached the standard of care resulting in Alexis’ cerebral palsy.

“The plaintiff claimed that our client, a labor and delivery nurse, violated the co-defendant obstetrician’s oxytocin (Pitocin) order by failing to recognize uterine hyperstimulation and fetal intolerance and to discontinue Pitocin and perform intrauterine resuscitation measures,” said the defendant’s attorney John Witten. “The plaintiff alleged that those actions caused cerebral palsy resulting in speech and motor deficits and asked the jury to award more than $21 million in damages. Our defense disputed breach of the standard of care, causation and damages.”

The Simmermans also claimed the doctor, who was represented by Zachary Walker of Gausnell, O’Keefe & Thomas in St. Louis, breached the standard of care by failing to come to the hospital after being told by Demsich the patient was “complete and pushing” approximately an hour before delivery.

“On cross-examination by Plaintiff, Dr. Fitch and his OB/GYN expert testified that Nurse Demsich failed to recognize hyperstimulation and fetal intolerance on the fetal heart monitor and failed to follow the oxytocin order. Nurse Demsich presented evidence that the fetal heart rate tracing was reassuring and that it did not show hyperstimulation or fetal intolerance as those terms were commonly defined and understood in 2001,” according to Witten and his co-counsel Timothy S. Frets.

Witten said the defense disputed the causation of plaintiff’s injuries and focused on medical evidence showing she sustained a short-term or near-total anoxic injury to parts of her brain after being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

“On damages, we challenged the methodology and conclusions of the plaintiff’s life care planner, Dr. Huckfeldt. The defense also presented testimony from a joint defense life care planner, Dr. Canter, who evaluated the plaintiff’s functional needs and offered a different assessment of the level of care required,” Witten said.

Frets and Witten said the Simmermans requested past non-economic damages of $3,000,000, future medical damages of $11,004,076, and future non-economic damages of $7,000,000 for a total of $21,004,076. They did not submit evidence of past medical damages and withdrew a claim of punitive damages against Demsich before submission to the jury.

After a nine-day trial in Clay County in February, the jury returned a verdict in favor of both defendants.

Delaney said Simmerman was one of the best clients he has ever had and that he is disappointed by the result.

“There’s some cases that need to be tried and this was one of them. We felt very confident about the standard of care issues that the nurse didn’t do what she was supposed to do in the case,” Delaney said. “We had a great client who was significantly damaged, (and had) significant brain injury as a result of the negligence we alleged. The difficulty was the causation piece of it was hard, and we knew that going in.”

Witten said one of the most challenging aspects of the case was its age.

“Another challenge was the complexity of the medical issues. We focused on breaking the science down into something the jury could easily follow,” Witten said. “Our experts explained how a short-term total or near-total anoxic event affects a different area of the brain compared to a prolonged partial hypoxic event lasting an hour or longer, which was the mechanism the plaintiff attributed to the alleged misadministration of Pitocin. One of the plaintiff’s experts used a demonstrative exhibit that color-coded the brain regions. By closing argument, our theme was that the plaintiff’s theory was simply the wrong color.”

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Amount of verdict, judgment or settlement: Defense verdict

Type of action: Medical malpractice

Venue: Clay County Circuit Court

Case Number/Date: 18CY-CV06925 / 02/17/2026

Judge: David Chamberlain

Plaintiffs’ Experts: Scott Serden, M.D. (OB/GYN), Los Angeles, California; Michelle E. Francis, BSN, RNC, CEFM (Labor and Delivery) Long Beach, California; Gene Tenorio, M.D. (Pediatric Neurologist) Springfield, Missouri; Roger E. Huckfeldt, M.D. (Life Care Planner) Springfield, Missouri.

Defendants’ Experts: Michele Wright, RNC, C-EFM (Labor and Delivery Nurse) Columbia, Missouri; William Graf, M.D. (Pediatric Neurologist) New Haven, Connecticut; Joel R. Meyer, MD, FACR (Neuroradiologist) Gilbert, Arizona; Bruce Bryan, M.D. (OB/GYN), St. Louis, Missouri; Jennifer Canter, M.D. (Life Care Planner) Armonk, New York.

Injuries: Cerebral palsy resulting in speech and motor deficits.

Special Damages: Plaintiff requested past non-economic of $3,000,000, future medical damages of $11,004,076, and future non-economic damages of $7,000,000 for a total of $21,004,076. Plaintiff did not submit evidence of past medical damages.

Last Pretrial Demand: $800,000 (Demsich)

Last Pretrial Offer: $600,000 (Demsich); $16,000 (Fitch)

Caption: Alexis Simmerman v. Ronald Fitch, D.O. and Sonia Demsich, R.N

Plaintiffs’ Attorneys: Brennan Delaney & Summer Davidson of Langdon & Emison in Independence.

Defendants’ Attorneys: Timothy S. Frets & John W. Witten of Rouse Frets White Goss Gentile Rhodes in Leawood, Kansas; Zachary Walker of Gausnell, O’Keefe & Thomas in St. Louis.