After trying to become pregnant for 5 years, Sherry and Ezra Spitzer were finally blessed with the pregnancy of twin girls, Maisie and Effie. Tragically, only one of those girls are with them today. Effie passed away 5 days after being born. Throughout the entire pregnancy, they did everything right – putting their trust in the hospital that specialized in twin births – to help them throughout the process including through the birth of their girls. While there were some issues that arose during the pregnancy, Sherry and Ezra were consistently told that they had nothing to worry about.

One of those issues was Maisie suffering from inter-uterine growth restriction meaning that her growth was not proceeding at the same rate as her sister’s. This led to Effie being in a breach position. Because of this situation, Sherry and Ezra had concerns and asked about having a Cesarian birth, but they were told everything was going to be okay and they should proceed without one. After 48-hours of intense labor, a healthy Maisie was born. However, Effie was in-fact being born in breach position. The 3 hours between the births of Maisie and Effie were even more challenging.

While Sherry and Ezra were struggling through 5 days in the hospital waiting on updates about Effie, they were also welcoming Maisie into the world and learning to become parents for the first time. During that time, they received no follow-up from any hospital personnel to help them with their new-born baby. But someone from the accounting department managed to visit with them to deliver them a bill for their stay. And people from the hospital’s “risk management” department made a number of visits to their room. Sherry also suffered terrible physical and emotional damage from the birth – having been told that she was responsible for the complications in the birth of Effie.

Throughout the entire pregnancy there were numerous times where hospital personnel could have changed their course of action and performed the necessary procedures to ensure a safe birth of both girls, but those actions were never taken. A simple understanding and acknowledgement of the situation that Sherry was in would have led to a relatively simple birth. Now, Sherry and Ezra have lost a daughter. Maisie has lost a sister. A corporate run hospital has never accepted any fault and instead has tried to blame the victim. While no level of compensation can be placed on the loss of a child, a penalty must be imposed to hold corporate entities like these accountable for their actions.