A Utah judge this month awarded nearly $1 billion in damages to a Rock Springs, Wyoming, family after finding a Salt Lake City hospital for botching the mother and baby’s labor care nearly six years ago, the mother says.
Daniel McMichael, Anyssa Zancanella, and their 5-year-old daughter Azaylee may not receive all of the $951 million that Utah Third Judicial District Judge Patrick Corum ordered on Aug. 8, Zancanella told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview.
That’s because $410 million of that — ordered to compensate for pain and suffering — is capped off at a $450,000 statutory maximum for noneconomic damages in Utah medical malpractice lawsuits, she said.
That could bring the actual total closer to $500 million.
But Barbara Gallagher, Zancanella's attorney, said the $410 million may be obtainable after all, however, but that the parties are still discussing the matter in court. That's because Steward Health Care defaulted in the case, she added.
Corum called for the damages after four years of litigation, and after finding Steward Healthcare liable in the case.
Zancanella was 19 years old and “having a beautiful pregnancy” in 2019, she said during her interview.
At that time she was “very close friends” with Azaylee’s father, Daniel McMichael.
The pair have since reunited and are now a couple, she said.
“I loved being pregnant. I was never sick. Loved it,” said Zancanella. “It was the most beautiful thing in the world."
In mid-October 2019 at around the 39-week mark in her pregnancy, and with permission from her Rock Springs OB/GYN, Zancanella said she and her family traveled to Salt Lake City for her stepdad's birthday party.
That’s about 2.5 hours southwest of Rock Springs.
Her water broke at the hotel on Oct. 12, 2019, she recalled.
Her family searched online for the nearest hospital and took her to Jordan Valley Medical Center, West Valley Campus, which was owned by Steward Healthcare Network, court documents say.
The hospital did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication time.
Struggling To Breathe
Zancanella had considered going home to Rock Springs instead since she had a good working relationship with her doctor there, but medical professionals in Utah advised against it, she said.
The Utah doctor directed nurses to administer Pitocin to Zancanella. That’s a drug that induces labor.
Health care professionals track how a mom and baby respond to delivery and Pitocin through reading fetal heart monitor strips, says an Aug. 4 court filing by Zancanella’s attorney, David Creasy.
“Every reasonable health care worker would have immediately understood after viewing the fetal heart monitor strips in this case that baby (Azaylee) was fighting for her life and was struggling to breathe,” Creasy wrote. “Tragically, the nurses Defendants assigned to care for Anyssa either lacked this basic understanding or chose not to help.”
The doctor didn’t act to prevent harm either, Creasy added.
One of the nurses assigned to Zancanella the morning of Oct. 13 had finished her orientation the day Zancanella went into labor and was very new to reading fetal heart monitor strips, the document says.
A second nurse was “also completely unprepared and unqualified” and had also finished her orientation days earlier, wrote Creasy.
Zancanella’s contractions were arriving too closely together, and the baby’s heart activity showed distress, says the document.
The charge nurse “refused to help” because she had “bumped heads” with Zancanella’s mother, who had complained when the charge nurse struggled to place an IV, wrote Creasy.
The charge nurse “essentially abandoned” the freshly-trained nurse, “demonstrating a callous lack of concern for a mother and an unborn baby who was fighting to breathe,” the document adds.
Meanwhile, health care workers kept pumping Pitocin into Zancanella, says the filling.
Creasy wrote that they ultimately performed a cesarian section, but it was too late.
Thirty-Six Hours
Zancanella was in labor for 36 hours, she said, adding that Azaylee suffered oxygen and blood-flow deprivation, leading to disabilities.
Azaylee was diagnosed at birth with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and permanent neurological injuries, including developmental delay and seizures, says the filing.
“These horrific injuries were foreseeable and would not have occurred had Defendants complied with the standard of care,” wrote Creasy.
The family asked less than the judge ultimately awarded, Zancanella's attorney Gallagher told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday text.
“But the judge took our number and turned it into his own,” said Zancanella.
A Cowboy State Daily request for the transcript of that damages order is pending. The court clerk did not immediately return a request for comment.
Day By Day
Azaylee will be 6 in October. She is nonverbal and delayed mentally by three years. She struggles with decision-making and mood control, said Zancanella.
The girl has facial scars from the botched procedure that will remain, and she’s prone to seizures — though medical interventions have kept the crisis-level grand mal seizures at bay since last May, Zancanella added.
On Friday, Zancanella was overwhelmed by the sudden rush of media attention, but grateful and relieved to be able to tell her story after six years of silence, she said.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she said. “Our family has been quiet for so long, about everything, because of us going through our legal battle.”
Zancanella said this battle wasn’t about the money to her, but about getting Azaylee the care she needs and as close a chance at having the normal life she could have had if things had gone better that October.
“She deserves to live the life she was supposed to have,” said Zancanella.
Gallagher said the amount is so high because the incident was "totally preventable" and "this little girl was a completely health, unborn child going into the hospital with a normal pregnancy. And through the actions of Steward Healthcare and their management of the hospital, basically put hospital profits over patient safety."
Jennifer Morales and Charlie Finlayson also represented the plaintiffs in this case.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
