Family awarded a BILLION dollars after mom's perfect pregnancy ended with severely disabled baby girl

Daily Mail ^ | 13:47 EDT, 28 August 2025 | Updated: 15:59 EDT, 28 August 2025 | RACHEL BOWMAN

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A family has been award nearly a billion dollars after suing a Utah hospital for botching a mother's delivery and leaving the parents with a severely disabled baby.

Anyssa Zancanella was awarded $951 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit after a judge said her daughter, Azaylee, would have been safer being born in 'the bathroom of a gas station, or a hut somewhere in Africa.'

Zancanella said her healthy pregnancy with her first daughter began to awry after her water broke while on a short trip to the Salt Lake City area in October 2019.

Hours away from her doctor in her home state of Wyoming, the family rushed to Jordan Valley Medical Center West Valley Campus, which was operated at the time by the now defunct Steward Health Care.

While at the hospital, Zancanella's lawsuit said she was given 'excessive' does of Pitocin, a labor-inducing drug, and ignored by nurses and medical staff.

'This was the very first, or one of the very first times, that either of the assigned bedside nurses had individually been assigned a laboring patient,' the lawsuit said. 

Zancanella said doctors did not perform a C-section delivery until over a day after she was admitted, which ultimately deprived her baby of oxygen and caused brain damage.

'[The obstetrician] abandoned mother and fetus/infant when she was fully aware of significant and dangerous issues with the ongoing labor process and the ongoing health and well-being of the fetus,' the lawsuit said.

'[Azaylee] sustained damages, including but not limited to, permanent neurological and cognitive damages, physical damages, emotional damages, limitations in physical, cognitive and mental function, as well as pain and suffering.'

Zancanella's said during her testimony: '[Azaylee] had her life stolen. We all did. We had her...

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
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[af_vet_1981]

Even if her O.B. let her know travel would be dangerous she is not responsible for the hospital’s neglect.

Concur; she is only responsible for travel risk of getting worse care than at home. With this award health insurance will cost more for those in no way respondible. Damages should be reduced to only necessary amounts.

[Crusher138]

At the time of the divorce she was his secretary. He was wealthy and married. Don’t get me wrong, the jury didn’t think highly of him either. It was the women on the jury that brought up the label “gold digger”. It appeared that now, later in life, she had little regard for his wellbeing or needs. Dropping off a frail octogenarian at his doctors appointment to get your hair done seemed callous.

[lastchance]

The amount is way excessive and will end up being reduced to a figure that reflects actual projected costs and a lower punitive damages amount.