Death After Childbirth: Maple Grove Woman's Husband Awarded $20 Million

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A Maple Grove woman's husband will receive $20 million after a jury found a nurse and a Twin Cities medical company responsible for her August 2013 death. Nicole Bermingham died at 30 years old, just days after giving birth to her only child.

According to Robins Kaplan LLP, who represented Nicole's husband Edward Bermingham, Nicole was discharged after giving birth but returned to the Abbott Northwestern Hospital emergency room three days later, suffering from fever and nausea. Nicole was then negligentely sent home by Patricia Eid, the nurse practitioner who treated her, according to the attorneys. Nicole returned again and died hours later of sepsis on Aug. 26, 2013.

According to the lawsuit, lab work ordered by nurse Eid showed classic signs of sepsis, including a low platelet count and high white blood cell count, KSTP reported. The lawsuit claimed Patricia Eid and Minneapolis-based Emergency Care Consultants were at fault because Eid "ignored" lab test results showing that Nicole had sepsis and she was sent home.

“We’re very pleased with the outcome of this case for our client and his family,” Elizabeth Fors, one of the attorneys on the case, said in a statement. “But this is something that was completely preventable and never should have happened in the first place.”

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