A Hudson County boy and his parents reached a $7.1 million settlement with Hoboken University Medical Center and its staff after he was born severely disabled from a delayed delivery, in the obstetrical medical malpractice case Tejada v. Hoboken University Medical Center.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph Isabella approved the settlement on Dec. 10, according to court documents. And funds were received on Dec. 23 and 26, lawyers said.

The case was scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 3. A verbal settlement was reached on Nov. 25, following mediation with Raymond Reddin, a retired Superior Court judge practicing in the Saddle Brook office of Hall Booth Smith.

An annuity was to be put into place by Jan. 27 for the trust of David Tejada of Bayonne, according to attorneys E. Drew Britcher and Armand Leone of Britcher Leone in Glen Rock, who represented him and his parents, Jasmin Tejada and Jorge Tejada, in the case.

The plaintiffs alleged that David suffered permanent and totally disabling medical conditions that resulted from the delay in his delivery causing severe hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

The suit contended that the defendants negligently failed to meet the standard of care. In addition to the medical center, it named as a defendant Dr. Joseph Gressock, according to documents.

David, now 3, requires constant care, including regular suctioning and nebulizer treatments, and is tube fed, according to Britcher. He has hydrocephalus, a ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and suffers seizures as a result of his condition following birth, the suit claimed. He is nonverbal and cannot hear.

The case involved first-time mother Jasmin Tejada, who at 35 weeks of pregnancy over a seven-hour period showed signs of fetal distress. Court documents stated the fetal heart rate of Tejada's unborn son showed such signs more than four hours before delivery.

David was born acidotic and was transferred for neonatal intensive care, where he remained for more than two months, Britcher said.

G. Emerson Dickman, a special-education attorney and child advocate with a solo practice in Maywood, was retained to develop two trusts for David: one to carry him through his 21st birthday with educational benefits that included transportation and therapies, and a second trust to receive all funds after he turned 21 that would shift him into a Medicaid eligibility trust. The second trust would allow Tejada to use the settlement funds purely for his special needs beyond medical needs that will no longer come from the school district, according to Britcher.

The court also approved a direct sum to David's parents that will allow them to purchase a bigger house to replace the one bedroom walk-up the family has lived in in Bayonne since David's birth, Britcher said.

"Their stated goal is to buy a house on one level to allow David to move around with ease," Britcher said in a phone call.  

David Donahue of Farkas & Donahue in Florham Park represented Gressock. Donahue was not available for comment.

Rowena Duran of Vasios Kelly & Strollo in Union, represented the medical center and its staff, and was also not available to comment.

The $7.1 million settlement was paid out by the medical center and Princeton Insurance Co. The medical center is owned by parent Hudson Hospital Opco, also known as CarePoint Health.

"One of the things that worked [at mediation] is that we focused on fetal heart monitoring and the inconsistencies in the [nursing] staff's interpretation of it, and that the child's damages are inconsistent with that delay was important," Britcher said. "The nature and quality of the experts we used, including RN Gayle Huelsman, one of the principal teachers of fetal heart monitoring who trains nursing staff all over the country, made a difference."

Britcher said there was another element that worked greatly to his favor: testimony by David's parents. They presented a "Day in the Life of David," starting from when the child woke up to when he went to bed. The parents recalled how they were told their lives were about to change forever by a pediatric neurologist at the medical center when he informed them they had to move their son to another institution to treat his brain injury, according to Britcher.

Britcher added, "Their resources to care for their child were very limited. Mrs. Tejada will be able to continue her training as an optometrist with the settlement. She has handled all of David's suctioning, tube feeding, cupping and bathing. He has to be placed in a particular seat in the shower to be bathed."

Britcher said one of his arguments was that because of David's immobility, he has a reduced life expectancy, and a substantial settlement was needed to adequately address his many needs.

"You wanted these people to make the greatest strides in caring for their son as best as they can," Britcher said. "This was a well-balanced outcome that my clients were very pleased with. We achieved something that could really make a difference."