Wow, it’s big awards day for medical malpractice lawsuits. A woman in Aurora, Illinois has reached a $15.35 million settlement with a hospital and doctor. She had sued because six years ago, her son suffered brain damage during delivery.

Vanessa Jenkins gave birth to her son, Cody Smithey, at Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich in October 2001.

Attorneys for Jenkins in Tuesday’s settlement say the boy suffered cerebral palsy and mental retardation after the doctor unsuccessfully used a vacuum extractor device during his birth.

A jury has awarded a woman in Ohio $20 million after they found doctors negligent in leaving her baby stuck in her birth canal for over 13 hours.

[Heather] Grow’s attorneys argued during a medical malpractice trial that the baby suffered brain injuries. Doctors had told Grow months earlier that she had a narrow pelvic arch.

The lawyers say the now 10-year-old girl has limited use of her limbs, has vision problems and is mildly retarded.

The doctors organization Group Health Associates says Dr. Lisa Yang “did everything medically possible to facilitate a healthy delivery.”

On a side note, this incident to place in 1997. Isn’t there something wrong with the system when it takes over 10 years to resolve such things?!

We hope if faced with a similar situation our nurturing instincts would kick in and we would think to save our child before ourselves. And why didn’t they call the cops after the first robbery?

An 8-year-old boy slept in his room Tuesday morning while gunmen forced their way into his house, shot and killed a family dog and sent his parents fleeing to the street.

Kevin Dummett, 35, and Kellin Hahn, 26, were the targets of two attempted robberies at their home Tuesday — both carried out by the same two men, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.

The men approached Dummett in his driveway and tried to rob him at 12:15 a.m. He didn’t call 911. When the gunmen returned at 6 a.m. and broke in through the back door, the family pit bull charged them and was immediately shot.

Hahn and Dummett fled the home, leaving their son asleep in his bedroom, the sheriff’s office said.

It seems that the top baby names trend differently depending on the state.

Kansas parents liked the names Ethan and Addison for babies last year, while Missouri moms and dads favored Jacob and Emma.

Those names topped the 2007 most-popular list in the two states, the Social Security Administration announced recently.

For the entire country, Jacob and Emily were the most popular names for babies last year.

No word on the popularity of Jim Bob and Billy Ray in Kentucky.

A mother in Garland, Texas, accidentally ran over her 2-year-old with her car, not expecting the child to be outside late at night.

Police said that little Marvin Segovia and his brother were taken outside by their father to look at the stars.

When the mother returned from a trip to the grocery store, she apparently ran over Marvin when the toddler wandered into the driveway, police said.

The mother at first did not realize she had struck the child. That realization only came moments later when she heard her husband’s screams from the front yard, police said.

A 9-year-old boy from Chicago’s South Side has been reported missing by his parents.

The boy was last seen about 9 p.m. at his home, and his parents reported him missing from South Green and West 83rd streets, according to a Gresham District police captain.

The 5-foot, 110-pound black boy was wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans and a red jacket, the captain said.