According to the News Chief, a Florida couple is suing Lakeland Regional Medical Center and Central Florida Health Care alleging medical errors caused their daughter’s cerebral palsy. Fiona and Stanley Brown, parents of 6-year-old Fiona Brown, claim the hospital and two registered nurse practitioners, Pamela Barany and Joan Sarratt Bardo, were negligent and caused Destiny’s brain injury.

According to the complaint, Central Florida Health Care DBA Lakeland OB-GYN provided Fiona Brown with prenatal care throughout her pregnancy. Brown went for a regular check up on September 28, 2005 and nurses observed signs and symptoms of high blood pressure. A nurse midwife in the office instructed Brown to go to the Lakeland Regional Medical Center for a further observation.

At the hospital, the fetal monitor strip indicated a decrease in fetal heart rate. Brown was 38 weeks pregnant at the time when medical personnel informed her that she needed an emergency Cesarean section. However, Brown delivered vaginally before a c-section was preformed. The lawsuit alleges negligence by defendants caused brain injury and subsequent neurological damage. The plaintiffs allege the defendants failed to timely provide care before the birth, failed at treating the fetal distress quickly enough and failed to report change in Brown’s condition to the attending doctor, which further delayed the c-section. The lawsuit names Bardo and Barany for failing to notify the attending physicians and delaying the needed emergency c-section.

Gayle Williams, chief executive of Central Florida Health Care, argued in court documents that her organization did not provide prenatal care in Lakeland in 2005, but that the organization linked with Lakeland OB-GYN in 2007.