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Albany Family Receives $5.2 Million After Mother Dies From C-Section

In what may be the largest medical malpractice settlement in New York history for the death of a mother during labor, a Schenectady family received $5.2 million after the wife and mother of the family died following a botched C-section at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

In 2007, Diane Rizk McCabe – who had a full-term pregnancy free of complications -- went into labor with her second child. After ten hours of unsuccessful pushing, she was ordered to have her baby by C-section. During the operation, which was preformed in part by an inexperienced resident, McCabe began bleeding internally. While several nurses alerted the on-duty doctor of her declining health and the possibility that she was losing blood, the doctor in question, Dr. Sean Yong-Il Lee, did not take action for 15 hours. By the time he went to operate again, she had died of her blood loss.

McCabe left behind a husband, police officer Joseph McCabe, and a now 9-year-old son Louie McCabe.

Part of the New York medical malpractice settlement involves a change of procedures at the Albany hospital where the preventable death took place: the hospital will, for the next 20 years, host a Diane McCabe Memorial Quality Lecture series that helps health professionals keep patients safe. In addition, the hospital is required to purchase a maternal and neonatal simulator in order to better train those working in labor and delivery.

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