Midwife who lost license is sued
RUTLAND, Vt. -- A former Mendon midwife who lost her license after the state charged her with violating midwifery rules during two births in January 2004 is being sued by the mother of one of those babies.
Lori Stellato of Mendon filed a lawsuit in Rutland Superior Court last week alleging her 21-month-old son suffered permanent brain damage during birth that was caused by the negligence of Roberta Devers-Scott, the former midwife, and midwife-in-training Adrienne Mulholland of Brandon.
Stellato's son is mentioned only by his initials, B.M., in the complaint.
''As a direct and proximate cause of Devers-Scott's negligence, B.M. suffered brain damage and many other injuries, including seizures that will last the rest of his life," Stellato's lawyer, Mark Furlan, wrote in the complaint.
Furlan wrote that his client was seeking compensatory, punitive, and other unspecified damages.
Devers-Scott, 42, who practiced midwifery in Mendon for 18 years, lost her right to practice or teach midwifery or to consult on prenatal care in December after a 10-month state investigation into two births that ended with the death of one infant and complications during Stellato's delivery.
Devers-Scott's attorney, Lisa Chalidze, said she would file official denials to Stellato's complaint. Mulholland's attorney, Peter Langrock, said his client denies the assertions of negligence as well.
Mulholland was studying under Devers-Scott in 2003 and 2004.
Most of Stellato's labor took place at Mulholland's former Pittsford home, according to the lawsuit.
The suit contends that the two midwives failed to obtain required consent forms, maintain proper medical records, and that Devers-Scott and Mulholland physically restrained Stellato from calling for an ambulance when she feared her baby was in jeopardy.
Stellato's son was subsequently diagnosed with cerebral infarctions, or dead areas of tissue on the brain, at Fletcher-Allen Health Care, according to the lawsuit.
However, Chalidze said interviews with Stellato and a doctor who examined her baby shortly after birth cast doubt on Stellato's willingness to be brought to the closest hospital as well as to the extent of her baby's injuries.
