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Staff at Mercy Hospital St. Louis, in Creve Coeur, allowed Sarah Anyan to keep pushing for 12 hours during labor despite warning signs that her baby was in distress.

Anyan’s baby was in the wrong position and monitors displayed warning signs about his vitals, her lawyers said.

All the while, Anyan, a first-time mother from Pacific, didn’t know anything was wrong.

“The only reason I continued to push was because they told me I was safe to do so,� Anyan said in an interview on Wednesday. “Mercy let us down.�

By the end, she had pushed for eight hours longer than is typical to deliver a baby.

The verdict against Mercy Hospital, Mercy Clinic and Dr. Daniel McNeive, reached late Tuesday, marks the largest medical malpractice verdict in Missouri history, according to a news release from Gunn Slater, the law firm representing the Anyans.

Lawyers for Mercy and McNeive argued during the trial that they weren’t responsible for the child’s injuries.

“Mercy and its physicians never want patients or their families to suffer and believe in the care that was provided in this case,� a Mercy spokesperson said on Wednesday in a statement. “Mercy disagrees with the outcome and is reviewing all options, including the possibility of appeal.�

McNeive could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Sarah and Blake Anyan’s son was born May 4, 2020. At the time, Sarah Anyan worked at Mercy as a nurse, but not in labor and delivery. Blake Anyan was a respiratory therapist and had worked at Mercy, too.

Sarah Anyan’s water broke on May 3, and she was hooked up to monitors at the hospital on South New Ballas Road by that afternoon. By 3:50 a.m. Sunday, she was ready to start pushing.

Roughly two hours later, however, a medical resident noticed that the baby was in a bad position for delivery and wasn’t making progress down the birth canal, lawyers said. Sarah Anyan kept pushing.

By 8 a.m., Sarah Anyan’s labor reached a rare milestone because the pushing stage had lasted more than four hours, the suit said. Monitors reading her baby’s heart rate displayed warning signs.

By that point, babies should be moving down the birth canal, said Amy Gunn, one of the Anyans’ lawyers. If not, medical guidelines say they should be delivered by cesarean section. But that option was never offered to Sarah Anyan.

Instead, McNeive occasionally popped into her room to see how she was doing.

Sarah Anyan kept pushing.

McNeive delivered three babies by c-section that day before returning to Sarah Anyan’s bedside at 2 p.m. to deliver her child.

By 4 p.m., the baby’s heart rate reached 160 beats per minute, then 180, then 200, Gunn said.

Nearly 30 minutes later, the child was born. But he was blue. He wasn’t breathing.

Medical staff rushed to resuscitate him. He started breathing, but he was limp, Gunn said.

He was eventually taken to the neonatal intensive care unit and stayed there for 46 days, according to a news release from the Simon Law Firm, whose lawyer, Liz Lenivy, worked on the case alongside Gunn and her law partner, Erica Slater.

Sarah Anyan has since quit her job as a nurse and now works as a full-time caretaker for her son. The family requested his name not be used in this story to protect his privacy.

She said Wednesday that in many ways their son, now 4, is just like other kids his age. He loves Hot Wheels and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He’s funny and stubborn and brutally honest about his mom’s cooking.

He wants to have friends and go out into the world and have new experiences.

Blake and Sarah Anyan said the verdict — $28.1 million in damages to account for the costs of the child’s care plus $20 million in punitive damages — will give them the resources to help him do that.

“He fights every day, and I think it was important for us, as parents, to fight for him,� Sarah Anyan said.