A Minnesota jury awarded $1.1 million in damages to a couple for the “wrongful conception” of their healthy child after the husband was incorrectly told that his vasectomy had been successful.
Steven Szlachtowski had a vasectomy performed at Minnesota Urology in Edina in December 2018. The following May, Szlachtowski went for standard post-vasectomy testing where a nurse told him it was safe to discontinue using contraceptives. Unexpectedly, Szlachtowski’s wife Megan Szlachtowski learned in March 2023 that she was 15 weeks pregnant.
In their filing, the Szlachtowskis alleged that the nurse who advised Steven had been habitually late or absent from work, sometimes showed up smelling of alcohol, and had been known to make errors. That nurse, however, died in 2022, prior to Megan Szlachtowski’s pregnancy.
The couple brought a medical malpractice lawsuit for emotional distress and the costs of raising the child, who was born healthy. They initially sought $6 million in punitive damages, in addition to compensatory damages involved with the pregnancy and raising a child they had not expected.