Instructions

Monica Morris, a 16-year-old pregnant New Jersey resident, was admitted to University Medical Center, a New York–based teaching hospital on October 2, 2012. Her pregnancy due date was November 30, 2012. She brought herself to the emergency room with complaints of high fever and a productive cough. She was evaluated by independent contractor Dr. Vinny Boombotz, M.D., in the emergency room. Dr. Boombotz performed a comprehensive physical examination and obtained blood work. He ordered and obtained a CT scan of her chest. Blood work revealed an infection. No antibiotics were prescribed but a mild pain medication, Percocet, was administered. Her parents were not contacted, but she was discharged to her parents’ home. While driving home she collided with a bus. She was uninjured but the bus driver sustained a fractured arm.

On October 20, 2012, Monica returned to University Medical Center with complaints of contractions occurring every 5 minutes and that her membranes had ruptured. She was again seen by Dr. Vinny Boombotz, who admitted her to the obstetrical unit with a diagnosis of premature labor. She came under the care of attending physician Vivian Smith and obstetrical resident Maxwell Simon. Dr. Smith was not convinced that the patient’s membranes had actually ruptured, so she attempted to artificially rupture them. She procured a sterile amniotomy hook, which was supplied by Universal Medical Supplies, Inc., a New Jersey–based medical device manufacturer. Consumer advocates had been lobbying the Food and Drug Administration and the New Jersey Department of Health to shut down Universal for years and to remove its amniotomy hook from the marketplace. Dr. Smith successfully ruptured the membranes with the amniotomy hook. Unfortunately, the amniotomy hook had not been properly sterilized, and in fact the package it had been delivered in had slight microscopic tears in its top as a result of shoddy manufacturing practices. As a consequence, the amniotomy hook had a superinfection on it, which, when used to rupture the membranes, led to an overwhelming infection involving the fetus. Labor progressed but the fetus was ultimately stillborn.

Monica Morris suffered no physical injury but was overwhelmingly devastated by the loss of her baby boy, and in the postpartum, she sank into a deep depression and became suicidal. The depression was so protracted that she ultimately had to be hospitalized psychiatrically at New York State Hospital. She received, among other modalities, electroconvulsive therapy and medication. At times during this hospitalization, she was physically restrained.

On April 20, 2015, she commenced a lawsuit against University Medical Center, New York State Hospital, and Universal Medical Supplies, Inc.

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