Also accused in the lawsuit are two advanced registered nurse practitioners, Pamela Barany and Joan Sarratt Bardo, who the suit said were working at Lakeland Regional when Destiny Brown was born there in late September 2005.

Fiona and Stanley Brown, Destiny’s parents, said Fiona Brown was receiving prenatal care at Central Florida Health Care/doing business as Lakeland OB-GYN. when she went for a regular check-up Sept. 28, 2005, with “signs and symptoms of high blood pressure,” the suit said it is “believed” she was evaluated by a nurse midwife there who told her to go to LRMC.

But Gaye Williams, chief executive of Central Florida Health Care, said her organization wasn’t doing prenatal care in Lakeland in 2005. it didn’t link with Lakeland OB-GYN until 2007, she said.

According to the lawsuit: At the hospital, the fetal monitor strip indicated a decrease in fetal heart rate. Fiona Brown, 38 weeks pregnant, was told she needed an emergency Cesarean section. Before a C-section was performed, however, she delivered vaginally.

The lawsuit contends negligence by the defendants caused Destiny’s brain injury and subsequent neurological damage.

LRMC is accused of not providing timely enough care before the birth, not treating the fetal distress quickly enough, not reporting changes in Brown’s condition to the attending doctor quickly enough and of delaying the C-section.

Those accusations also are made against Bardo and Barany, the advanced registered nurse practitioners, who are certified nurse midwives.

Central Florida Health Care is accused of not appropriately identifying and treating Brown’s pre-natal hypertension, not giving her timely and appropriate warnings and instructions and of failing to identify signs and symptoms of fetal distress quickly enough.

LRMC and Central Florida Health Care aren’t providing the medical records the parents have requested, the suit said.

Lakeland Regional, following its standard policy, had no comment on the open lawsuit.

Williams, in addition to saying her nonprofit center wasn’t in Lakeland when the suit alleges Brown was treated there, said Central Florida can’t be tried in state court.

The Department of Justice would defend Central Florida, a federally qualified primary care center, in federal court, she said.

[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter at ledgerROBIN. ]