A North Carolina jury has awarded $18.2 million to a mother and her 6-year-old son after finding that a doctor’s negligence during delivery caused permanent nerve damage, disfigurement and a disability that will affect nearly every part of the child’s life.

Naqah Lake cannot fully use his left arm.

He needs help getting dressed, opening containers and using the bathroom. At school, he relies on an assistant for tasks other children can perform independently.

His family says the injury was preventable.

After a five-week trial, a Wake County jury agreed.

The verdict concluded that physician Tara Brenner acted negligently during Naqah’s birth at WakeMed’s Raleigh hospital in September 2019. The jury awarded $2.2 million in economic damages and $16 million for pain, suffering, disability and other non-economic losses.

The total may ultimately be reduced because of North Carolina’s cap on certain medical-malpractice damages.

But for Naqah’s family, the verdict represented something they had sought for years:

Accountability.

“The jury rightly recognized that Naqah will never be able to play sports that require both hands, hug his mother with both arms, hold his own child with both arms, or simply clap his hands,” family attorney Lisa Weinstein said.

The case began with what doctors call shoulder dystocia, a delivery emergency in which a baby’s shoulder becomes stuck after the head emerges.

According to the family’s lawsuit, Brenner rotated Naqah’s head before the rest of his body had been delivered.

The family’s attorneys argued that the maneuver should never have been performed and caused catastrophic damage to the brachial plexus, the network of nerves controlling movement and sensation in the shoulder, arm and hand.

Weinstein said all five nerves in Naqah’s left brachial plexus were torn away from the spinal cord during delivery.

The defense disputed that Brenner had violated the appropriate standard of care.

At the time of the birth, Brenner was a third-year medical resident at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She later became an obstetrician-gynecologist working for WakeMed.

Naqah was not breathing when he was delivered and spent nine days in the neonatal intensive care unit, according to the complaint.

His left arm remained limp.

Doctors later diagnosed him with a severe nerve injury affecting his shoulder and arm. At 6 months old, he underwent surgery, but the damage proved permanent.

He continues to live with a form of brachial plexus injury commonly known as Erb’s palsy.

The Cleveland Clinic describes the condition as weakness in the arm or shoulder resulting from damage to the nerves, often associated with complications during birth.

Some infants recover over time.

Naqah did not.

His family says he has permanent weakness, restricted movement and visible differences in his left arm. Tasks involving both hands can be difficult or impossible.

The consequences extend beyond physical limitations.

His attorneys told jurors that he is already becoming aware that his arm does not function like those of other children.

He faces questions, reactions and emotional pain as he grows up with a disability that will never disappear.

The lawsuit argued that Naqah will continue to experience physical discomfort, mental suffering, disfigurement and limitations throughout his life.

His mother, Laurel Browne, filed the case with him in 2022 against WakeMed and four medical professionals involved in her pregnancy and delivery.

After hearing weeks of evidence, the jury found only Brenner negligent.

The other three WakeMed employees named in the lawsuit were cleared.

Jurors also found that Brenner’s conduct did not meet the higher legal threshold of gross negligence.

That distinction may dramatically reduce the final payout.

North Carolina law limits certain non-economic medical-malpractice damages to $712,847 unless a jury finds gross negligence or another legal exception applies, according to reporting by The News & Observer.

As a result, the $16 million portion of the award for non-economic harm could be reduced substantially when the judge enters the final judgment.

The $2.2 million awarded for economic losses, including future care and assistance, is treated differently under the law.

The family’s attorneys nevertheless called the verdict historic, describing it as the largest brachial plexus jury award in the United States.

“The defendants spent four years denying responsibility and refusing to take accountability and compensate our clients,” Weinstein said.

“We stayed the course.”

She said the legal team continued through years of preparation and litigation until the evidence was finally presented to a jury.

“Justice was finally served,” she said.

WakeMed emphasized that most of its employees named in the lawsuit were not found negligent.

“WakeMed is committed to providing a safe environment for patients to receive care and for future generations of health care providers to learn,” a spokesperson told The News & Observer.

Brenner’s attorneys maintained during the trial that she had acted appropriately under the circumstances and followed the required standard of care.

The jury rejected that defense as to ordinary negligence but agreed that her actions did not constitute gross negligence.

The verdict cannot restore movement to Naqah’s arm.

It cannot return the childhood experiences he may miss or remove the assistance he will need in the future.

What it can do is recognize that his injuries were not simply an unavoidable tragedy, according to the jury’s findings.

For Laurel Browne, the case was about securing resources for her son and ensuring that someone accepted responsibility for what happened in the delivery room.

For Naqah, the consequences will last far beyond the courtroom.

He will grow older, attend school, form relationships and build a life while adapting to a permanent disability caused at the moment of his birth.

His attorney captured the loss through the simplest human gestures.

Clapping both hands.

Embracing his mother with both arms.

One day holding his own child.

The jury placed a value of $18.2 million on the injury and everything it may take from him.

North Carolina law may reduce that number.

But the verdict delivered a message the family had waited years to hear:

Naqah’s suffering mattered, and the doctor responsible was legally accountable.