Saturday, August 30, 2025 - A judge from Utah, USA has awarded a family nearly $1 billion, the largest payout in the state’s history — after finding that catastrophic medical negligence during a baby’s delivery left her with permanent, life-altering disabilities.
Judge Patrick Corum ruled earlier this month that Steward Health Care was liable for the botched October 14, 2019, delivery of Azaylee McMicheal at Jordan Valley Medical Center in West Valley City, Utah.
Parents Anyssa Zancanella and Danniel McMicheal were awarded $951 million in damages, according to court documents cited by The Salt Lake Tribune.
“Zancanella would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa, than in this hospital,” Corum wrote. “Literally, this was the most dangerous place on the planet for her to have given birth.”
According to the family’s 2021 lawsuit, nurses had just completed their training on the day Zancanella was admitted and administered excessive doses of the labor-inducing drug Pitocin while ignoring warning signs like rising fetal blood pressure and stalled dilation.
When the nurses finally informed the on-call doctor of the emergency, the physician allegedly went back to sleep in a nearby room instead of intervening.
“The person [Azaylee] was to be, the person she deserved to be, is trapped inside a brain-damaged child,” Corum said in his ruling. “I cannot think of anything more profound, total or complete than that loss.”
Azaylee was delivered more than 24 hours later via an overdue C-section, suffering oxygen deprivation and other trauma. She was airlifted to Primary Children’s Hospital’s ICU with a misshapen head, facial swelling, bruising and severe neurological damage.
Now five years old, Azaylee suffers from frequent seizures, is largely non-verbal, and requires round-the-clock care. She attends kindergarten only a few hours per day and undergoes continuous physical and occupational therapy.
“Azaylee had her life stolen. We all did. We had her taken from us,” Zancanella said during the three-day trial. “She is trapped. I know that my daughter is in there, but she can’t come out and I think of that every day.”
The family plans to acquire a service dog to help detect seizures and travels with oxygen equipment to manage medical emergencies
The record-breaking award comes as Steward Health Care faces bankruptcy and billions in debt, raising doubts about how much of the damages the family will collect.
The hospital has since been renamed Holy Cross Hospital–West Valley after being acquired by CommonSpirit Health two years ago.
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