A family has been awarded nearly $1 billion in damages after a botched hospital birth left their baby girl permanently disabled.
Anyssa Zancanella, from Wyoming, was handed a $951 million payout following a devastating delivery at Jordan Valley Medical Center West Valley Campus in Utah, as reported by the Daily Mail.
At the time, the facility was operated by Steward Health Care, which has since collapsed into bankruptcy.
The case stemmed from the birth of Zancanella’s first child, Azaylee, in October 2019.
Zancanella said her pregnancy had been healthy and uneventful until her water broke while visiting the Salt Lake City area.
Hours from her own doctor, she and her partner, Daniel McMichael, rushed to the hospital in West Valley City.
But what should have been a safe delivery turned into a nightmare.
Zancanella’s lawsuit claimed she was given “excessive” doses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin and that medical staff failed to act despite clear signs of distress.
“This was the very first, or one of the very first times, that either of the assigned bedside nurses had individually been assigned a laboring patient,” the filing noted, as reported by The Sun.
Doctors, she said, did not perform a C-section until more than 24 hours after she was admitted. By that point, Azaylee had been deprived of oxygen, leaving her with severe and permanent brain damage.
“[The obstetrician] abandoned mother and fetus/infant when she was fully aware of significant and dangerous issues with the ongoing labor process and the ongoing health and well-being of the fetus,” the lawsuit stated.
The impact on the family has been life-changing.
Now four years old, Azaylee is nonverbal, suffers seizures, and requires constant care.
She undergoes ongoing physical and occupational therapy and cannot sleep alone, meaning she shares a bed with her parents.
During her testimony, Zancanella told the court: “[Azaylee] had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us. She is trapped. I know that my daughter is in there, but she can't come out and I think of that every day.”
Third District Judge Patrick Corum issued a blistering condemnation of the hospital’s handling of the delivery.
“[Zancanella] would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital,” he said. “Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth.
“The person she was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child. I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss.”
Corum awarded Zancanella, McMichael, and Azaylee $951 million, noting the amount could have been even higher if Steward had properly participated in the case.
“Had the defendant been here, I think the testimony would have been lengthier and even more compelling, if that's possible,” he added.
But whether the family will ever receive the full payout remains uncertain.
Steward Health Care, once the largest private hospital operator in the US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024 and sold off all of its hospitals.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the company also withdrew from the legal battle entirely, leaving its lawyers to quit and its defense abandoned.
“Indeed, since at least the early Spring of 2024, Defendants’ entire strategy seems to have been nothing other than an attempt to thwart justice and the judicial process,” Corum said.
“The court is still, in a very, very odd way, reluctant to give what I think this case is actually worth because [the defendants are] not here, because I do not want to create issues that don’t need to be there.”
The family’s attorney, Jennifer Morales, said they expect to collect at least half of the award, which represents punitive damages.