$23.5M Verdict in Mercy Hospital Birth Injury Case

A Cook County jury returned a verdict exceeding $23.5 million for Dylan Gong, finding Trinity Health-owned Mercy Hospital and Medical Center liable for injuries associated with his birth. The verdict was reached on February 23, 2026, after approximately five hours of deliberations following a four-week trial. The matter centered on allegations that clinicians failed to respond to fetal distress with a timely cesarean delivery, resulting in asphyxia and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. The plaintiff also challenged the hospital’s credentialing practices for an attending physician involved in the delivery, contending that administrative failures compounded clinical delays and contributed to irreversible neurologic harm.

The Labor-and-Delivery Timeline at Issue

Dylan Gong’s mother arrived at the hospital on June 3, 2017 with contractions, and prenatal testing and monitoring had shown Dylan to be healthy and neurologically normal prior to admission. Shortly after arrival, a triage nurse identified concerning findings on electronic fetal monitoring that indicated Dylan was not receiving adequate oxygen and required immediate intervention. The allegations focused on a pattern of delay despite “classic signs” of excessive contractions that were purportedly compromising placental oxygen delivery and producing ongoing fetal distress.

The plaintiff further alleged that Mercy’s physicians and nurses repeatedly waited to proceed with delivery despite persistent nonreassuring tracings and escalating risk, and that this delay continued until the injury was irreversible. It identified the staff attending as Yuhang Shek, M.D., and asserted that he failed to deliver Dylan by timely C-section as required by the standard of care. By the time Dylan was delivered, his heart rate had deteriorated into bradycardia and he was born lifeless due to brain damage sustained before birth.

Allegations of Abandonment, Supervision, and Institutional Delay

There were additional allegations regarding decision-making, supervision, and intra-hospital escalation. It asserted that Dr. Shek left the hospital to attend to other scheduling responsibilities while the plan remained to continue “waiting,” despite signs that Dylan required emergent delivery. The plaintiff framed that conduct as abandonment during an evolving obstetric emergency and argued that it prolonged the period of inadequate oxygenation.

Mercy’s resident physician and nurses later contacted an in-house supervising “Obstetrician of the Day,” who immediately recognized the need for an emergency C-section. The allegations then shifted to the in-house OB’s response, contending that she nevertheless delayed calling and performing the procedure and instead waited for Dr. Shek to return to the hospital to operate. The plaintiff’s theory, as described, treated these successive delays as avoidable departures from obstetric standards designed to minimize hypoxic exposure time, particularly when fetal monitoring indicates sustained distress.

Damages Evidence and Disputes Over Causation

Dylan is now 8 years old and lives with a complex neurologic disability attributed to hypoxic-ischemic brain damage at birth. It reported that Dylan has a Full-Scale IQ of 105, nonverbal intelligence scores in the 97th percentile, and earns good grades with significant accommodations. Notwithstanding strong measured cognitive skills, Dylan allegedly lacks the functional capability to independently use those abilities and requires extensive support for basic activities of daily living, which the plaintiff contended will be lifelong.

The plaintiff further stated that Dylan has diagnoses including Mixed Expressive and Receptive Language Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Behavioral Disorder, and mild Cerebral Palsy. It also described a contested causation narrative, asserting that Trinity Health maintained the injury could have occurred for unknown reasons at an unknown time prior to labor and delivery and argued that Dylan’s conditions were unrelated to the documented brain damage. In addition to the labor-management claims, the rplaintiff asserted negligent credentialing, alleging the hospital allowed Dr. Shek to practice despite not meeting board-certification requirements under Mercy’s by-laws.

Case Details

Case Name: Dylan Gong v. Mercy Hospital and Medical Center
Court Name: Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois
Case Number: 2018 L 003882
Plaintiff Attorney(s): Beam Legal Team, LLC
Defense Attorney(s): Anderson, Rasor & Partners, LLP