Brandon Walker was serving on Navy orders at a joint base in Japan when his wife, Kyla Walker, gave birth on Nov. 21, 2013. The family is now suing the Air Force over their daughter’s devastating injury and a federal legal barrier blocking a standard malpractice case.

The couple was assigned to Misawa Air Base when doctors recommended a cesarean section after Kyla Walker had spent hours in labor. During surgery, the placenta detached, cutting off oxygen and blood flow while an Air Force doctor took six minutes to deliver Kira Walker.

Kira suffered a hypoxic brain injury and was rushed to a Japanese hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit, where she remained for about three weeks. The family was medically evacuated to San Diego, California, and spent the following months attending weekly hospital appointments and learning how to manage her medical needs.

Kira, now 13, has been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, epilepsy, and blood clots, and she recently received a kidney transplant. Her mother said she is developmentally delayed, requires around the clock care, and needs help with daily tasks such as brushing her teeth and getting dressed.

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The Walkers now live in Texas with Kira and their other two children, who are 11 and 15. Brandon Walker, honorably discharged from the Navy in 2015 as an aviation electrician’s mate second class, works as a NASA contractor while Kyla Walker attends Alvin College for a nursing degree.

Kyla remains a stay at home mother because of Kira’s extensive needs, while Brandon uses vacation days for medical appointments or school pickups when necessary. “It’s a balancing act to make sure one of us is available for what she needs. We have learned to live within our means,” Kyla Walker said.

The family filed a Military Claims Act request in 2015 after encouragement from their veteran fathers, one of whom served in the Navy and the other in the Army. They sought $11.9 million in damages and care from the Air Force and the OB-GYN who delivered Kira.

The Air Force offered $225,000 as a “compromise settlement” that “should not be construed as an admission of liability.” According to the lawsuit, the service said the OB-GYN, a captain who had recently completed his residency, encountered pelvic adhesions that complicated the delivery.

The Walkers argue that pelvic adhesions are foreseeable and manageable, pointing to Kyla’s later delivery of her son without injury. Kyla called the offer disappointing because it would not cover Kira’s continuing medication, equipment, leg braces, wheelchair needs, or yearly cardiology exams carrying a $4,000 bill.

Because Kira is a minor, accepting the settlement required approval from a state court. A Texas county judge rejected the offer in March after determining that the amount was not in Kira’s “best interest,” and the family then forwarded that decision to the Air Force and appealed.

Seven months later, the family had not received a decision on that appeal. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas assisted the Walkers, but the service told his office that the “appeal remains under consideration.”

The family’s federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., alleges that its constitutional rights were violated because the Federal Tort Claims Act excludes claims arising in a foreign country. Families whose children are injured at military hospitals inside the United States can use that law to sue the government, but the Walkers were limited to the administrative Military Claims Act process.

Two military families inside the United States brought similar cases alleging that military doctors delayed delivering their babies and caused permanent brain injuries. A Fort Campbell, Kentucky, case produced an $11 million settlement earlier this year, while a Tripler Army Medical Center case in Hawaii resulted in a $38 million settlement in 2022.

“It affects potentially every service member who’s deployed overseas because their family could be in the same position,” family lawyer L. Lee Thweatt said. The lawsuit seeks the original $11.9 million care estimate from 2015, plus interest, and asks a judge to order a bench trial addressing liability and damages.

The Air Force declined to comment because the litigation remains ongoing. “It changed our entire lives. It affects my kids and who they’ll be,” Kyla Walker said.

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