The family of a “healthy” Brooklyn mother who mysteriously died after giving birth to a baby boy earlier this month launched a $42 million lawsuit on Thursday seeking damages and answers to the tragedy that upended their lives.
Along with introducing a little brother to his two older siblings, Christine Fields’ parents and fiancé had to tell her two young kids that their mother was dead.
And what was supposed to be a joyous occasion filled with blessings and promise became a nightmare beset by anguish and pain.
“We were looking forward to a wedding this year,” said Jose Perez, Fields’ fiancé. “But she ended up pregnant and we put it on hold.”
He called Fields “a great mother.”
“She spent every minute she could with her kids,” he said.
The Fields family’s odyssey stretched over the course of three days that began on Nov. 11, when the pregnant woman walked into Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Center to deliver her baby boy.
The next day, according to the family, she had an emergency C-section over her objections, but was conscious and responsive after the baby was born.
The family left her room and was told later that Fields, 30, had died. They are awaiting an autopsy to determine a cause of death.
“Three children, ages 3, 5 and a newborn infant, will now be raised without a mother,’ said the family’s attorney Sanford Rubinstein. “This is tragic. This family had no reason to think this wasn’t going to be a healthy childbirth.”
The family’s lawsuit alleges that medical malpractice was responsible for Fields’ death, Rubenstein said.
According to lawyer Ira Newman, Rubenstein’s partner who specializes in malpractice cases, Fields had experienced a “normal” pregnancy with no complications.
After 10 hours of labor, the baby’s heart rate dropped and Fields was rushed in for the emergency C-section.
“Following the C-section, she went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced deceased at around 3 or 4 in the morning on Nov. 13,” Newman said.
A hospital spokesman declined to give information about Fields’ care, citing medical privacy laws.
“The health and safety of our patients is our highest priority, and we express our sincere condolences to those affected by this tragic loss,” the spokesman, Christopher Miller, said in a statement.
Fields’ mother Deneen Witherspoon said she needs answers.
“My daughter was healthy,” she said. “She was my heart. Now I have to help raise three kids that don’t have a mother.”
