DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, Brooklyn (PIX11) — The family of Christine Fields, a Brooklyn woman who died after giving birth at Woodhull Hospital in November, is speaking out about her untimely death and demanding payment for damages, as they claim the hospital committed medical malpractice.
The family alleges the death of 30-year-old Fields was due to hospital staff not properly performing an emergency c-section and monitoring her condition after the surgery. In a new lawsuit, announced at their attorney Sanford Rubenstein’s office in Downtown Brooklyn Thursday, her family is now seeking $41 million in damages.
“That was my heart,” said Fields’ mother, Denene Witherspoon. “She made me so proud, and now I don’t have that in my life anymore. Now, I have to help raise three kids that don’t have a mother. I miss my daughter so much, and I need to know what happened to my daughter.”
With tears in her eyes and her daughter’s picture on her shirt, Witherspoon stood in Rubenstein’s office crying out for answers in the death of her daughter, which she said happened on Nov. 13.
“My daughter was healthy, my daughter was 30, my daughter did everything right,” Witherspoon said. “She had had a birthing plan. Nothing was followed according to her birthing plan, and now I don’t have my child, and it just hurts so much.”
Fields’ family told PIX11 News that she had to have an emergency c-section in the late hours of Nov. 12, ultimately causing her to go into cardiac arrest the next day.
“Her baby’s heart rate drops, and there’s fetal distress,” said Attorney Ira Newman, the family’s other attorney. “She’s rushed in for a c-section, and we are investigating and have learned from the [medical examiner’s] office that there was pooling blood.”
Fields leaves behind three children, including her newborn baby and her fiancé Jose Perez, who has spent the last two weeks trying to piece together a nightmare.
“We just thought it was going to be a regular birth like the first, second kid,” Perez said as he wiped away tears.
The tragedy comes three years after the death of Sha’ Asia Washington, who also died during an emergency C-section at the hospital back in 2020. City data from 2019 shows that black mothers across the five boroughs are more than twice as likely to die giving birth than white mothers.
A spokesperson for NYC Health + Hospitals said:
The health and safety of our patients is our highest priority, and we express our sincere condolences to those affected by this tragic loss. NYC Health + Hospitals has a steadfast commitment to providing quality, dignified, culturally responsive care to all New Yorkers without exception. We will continue to make advances to protect the safety and health of new mothers and address the national crisis of high rates of maternal mortalities.
NYC Health + Hospitals spokesperson
Newman and Rubenstein are now pushing for Gov. Kathy Hochul to pass the Grieving Families Act in hopes of getting swift justice for incidents like this in the future.
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