Mother Sues Hospital Over Girl’s Condition : Courts: She claims newborn’s brain damage was the fault of UCI Medical Center staff. Hospital denies nurses erred.

Cheryl Chapman was exhausted yet excited after giving birth to twins two years ago at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

With newborns Jeremy and Jessica in her arms, Chapman smiled as family members snapped photos to record the joyful event.

But everything would change 17 hours later in the pre-dawn hours of May 14, 1993, as the new mother nursed her infant daughter. Chapman fell asleep on her side and the baby nestled at her breast stopped breathing.

On Wednesday, Chapman’s attorney told an Orange County jury that the baby was nearly smothered and suffered brain damage because the medical center’s staff had left the infant alone and in a perilous position with the exhausted--and sedated--new mother. Jessica, now 2, has brain damage so severe that she needs a feeding tube to eat, the attorney said.

But the hospital’s attorneys say nurses did nothing wrong and that some other medical condition, perhaps genetic, caused the baby to stop breathing.

Chapman had nursed the seemingly healthy twins several times earlier, and nurses followed standard procedure in leaving the infant girl with her mother, said defense attorney George E. Peterson, who is representing the hospital.

“It was perfectly fine to let this mother breast feed at 5 o’clock in the morning,” Peterson said Wednesday as the Chapman civil lawsuit went to trial.

Just what happened in Chapman’s hospital room that morning and whether UCI Medical Center is liable for the child’s condition will be up to an Orange County Superior Court jury to decide in coming weeks.

During the trial’s opening statements, Chapman’s attorney told jurors the “tragedy” of the child’s brain damage was entirely preventable.

“This mother should never have been left alone in a position where she could fall asleep . . . and smother the baby,” said attorney Bruce G. Fagel, who also is a physician.

Fagel said Chapman, 26, had been given two medications to relieve pain from her Cesarean section delivery and that she was very tired as she nursed the babies that morning. The medications required that nurses wake her every hour to check her vital signs, and she had been nursing the babies every two to three hours since the previous afternoon, Fagel said.

Chapman didn’t even wake when a nurse came into the room and discovered that Jessica had stopped breathing, Fagel said.

The mother contends a doctor who woke her minutes later told her she had suffocated the baby, although the clinical director of the hospital neonatal intensive care unit later made a diagnosis of near-SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Fagel said.

The hospital’s attorney said no one disputes that Chapman was tired, but said there is no evidence that she was overly sedated.

Peterson said nurses found Chapman alert and capable of following through with her request to breast-feed the babies, even turning down an offer to sleep while a nurse fed them with a bottle.

Since the twins appeared normal and Chapman had successfully nursed them several times earlier, nurses were not required to monitor her constantly, Peterson said.

The side-lying position is also one of three approved nursing positions mothers are taught to use, he told jurors.

Both sides said they intend to call expert witnesses to delve into the medical issues in dispute over the cause of Jessica’s breathing problem that morning.

Peterson told jurors that something in her father’s medical background suggests a genetic condition caused the problem. Chapman’s attorney rejected that contention, saying there is no test to prove such a problem.

Chapman, a former computer store customer services representative who has since separated from her husband, is now living in Arizona near her parents.

Her attorney said she provides total care for Jessica, who has been diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy, unable to control the most basic of bodily functions. Her twin brother, Jeremy, is perfectly healthy, Fagel said.

Fagel said he is seeking as much as $6 million for the cost of Jessica’s future medical care over her shortened life expectancy.

The trial before Superior Court Judge Richard F. Toohey is expected to continue into early December.