MALPRACTICE SUIT SETTLED: Elyria Woman Blamed Doctor for Unborn Baby's Death

by Scott Stephens, The Plain Dealer, February 11, 1993

An Elyria woman who claimed her unborn baby died because her doctor wouldn't leave a black-tie affair at a country club agreed to settle her medical malpractice lawsuit yesterday.

The agreement between Anita Pastor, 23, and Dr. Ronald Sander was reached just as the trial was scheduled to begin. Judge Edward M. Zaleski of Lorain County Common Pleas Court issued a gag order preventing disclosure of the settlement.

"I hope this case alerts doctors to two things," said Lawrence Landskroner, Pastor's lawyer. "First, when there are complications, bring in a specialist. And, second, when you get a telephone call, honor it and don't abandon your patient."

The case has drawn national attention. Last month, the syndicated tabloid news show "A Current Affair" broadcast a story about the case. Court TV, a national cable network, had planned to broadcast the trial.

"The circumstances of the case make it a good case, obviously," said Benjamin Barrett, a lawyer representing Sanker. "But this case has some defenses to its charges. The result may very well have been unavoidable. There was reasonable cause for what was done."

Pastor, who has a 4-month-old son, filed a $1.5 million malpractice lawsuit against Sanker, an osteopath, in 1990.

According to court records, Pastor's mother tried to contact Sanker when her daughter began feeling contractions the evening of August 18, 1989. She found Sanker about 10 p.m. at Elyria Country Club, where he was attending a social function.

Records state Sanker reportedly agreed to meet mother and daughter at Amherst Hospital, but never showed. Instead, Sanker called the hospital at 1 a.m. and told a nurse to send Pastor home, records state.

Pastor, 19 at the time, was more than two weeks past her delivery date. She was sent home despite the nurse's concern about an abnormal fetal heart rate and other signs of stress to the unborn baby, the lawsuit stated.

When she returned to the hospital the next evening, the baby was dead. The umbilical cord restricted the flow of blood from the placenta to the fetus, causing death, court records state.

An expert for the defense stated in deposition that had Pastor been admitted to the hospital the night of Aug. 13 and been given fetal monitoring and amniotic fluid tests, the baby would have lived.

In court documents, J.C. William Tattersall, a lawyer appointed by an insurance company to defend Sanker, stated that there was no evidence that Sanker abandoned his patient.

"He followed the usual practice when a patient says she is in labor to send her to the hospital to be evaluated by a nurse," he stated.

Landskroner said yesterday that his client holds no personal animosity toward Sanker and did not relish reliving her experience in court.

"She's very glad to have this over with," he said. "We just weren't able to get a sufficient sum in our opinion, previously."