A Barren County jury awarded more than $18 million Tuesday night to a child who suffered brain damage while being delivered at T.J. Samson Community Hospital.

The civil trial held over several days this month in Barren Circuit Court concluded with 10 out of 12 jurors finding that the hospital acted negligently in deviating from the accepted standard of care for Tristan Hamilton, with the negligence being a substantial factor in causing the child’s injuries.

Tristan was injured during delivery in 2007, suffering a brain injury and other persistent health issues. The child, through his mother, Brittney Hamilton, both of Bowling Green, filed a lawsuit in 2011 against the hospital and Kelly Dirig, the obstetrician-gynecologist who delivered Tristan.

The jury cleared Dirig of any liability in its verdict.

The award totals $18,270,052.37 for medical, hospital and prescription-related expenses to date and in the future and also accounts for mental anguish and pain and suffering in the past and future and impairment of power to earn money.

“The jury did a really good job getting their hands around some very complex medical issues, but I think it really boiled down to a pretty simple issue, and that was the nurses are the eyes and ears of the doctors at that hospital and if there are abnormal findings, they need to follow doctor’s orders and need to report abnormal findings, and I think the jury concluded they didn’t do either thing,” said Louisville attorney Tyler Thompson, who represented the Hamiltons. “I don’t want to be too hard on these nurses because they were not properly trained by the hospital for the position they were in. … We spent a lot of time talking about the hospital’s obligations that the nurses were properly trained.”

The lawsuit against the hospital alleged the child was improperly monitored after Brittney Hamilton was administered Pitocin, a drug commonly used to induce labor. 

Tristan was diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, after suffering a brain injury due to a lack of oxygen, causing persistent health problems for him, Thompson said.

“He’s going to have a lot of struggles, and I think the size of the verdict matches the extent of the injury,” Thompson said.

Hospital nurses claimed Dirig had told them to increase Pitocin to very high levels during the delivery process, but Dirig, who does not work for the hospital, maintained she did not give any such order, according to Thompson.

While the jury split on whether the hospital acted negligently, the jurors were unanimous in its finding that Dirig committed no wrongdoing.

The hospital is taking the concerns in the case seriously.

“TJ Samson has been committed to providing the best healthcare possible to our community since 1929. We take the concerns presented in this case very seriously and our hearts go out to Tristan and his family,” said a statement released by hospital attorney Jeff Herbert. “The high quality of care we provide to our patients every day is the result of a continuing commitment of our dedicated caregivers and physicians. Such care is evident from the more than 1,200 babies that TJ Samson proudly delivered last year alone.”

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.