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$1.5 Million Lawsuit For Birth Injury To Child
Look at a lawsuit concerning an expectant mother was admitted to the hospital in the thirty fifth week of her pregnancy for extreme hypertension which was induced by the pregnancy. It took 5 days after her admission before anyone in the medical staff ordered that the fetal heart rate be monitored. The monitoring was ordered only after the mother’s condition worsened. The display showed that the fetus was in distress. An agent was administered in order to bring about labor. After eight hours of tacking her with the fetal distress becoming severe a placental abruption was finally diagnosed. Even then another hour passed before the doctor performed a C-section. Because of the delay the baby suffered a kind of brain damage known as acute hypoxic-ischemia which comes about from a loss of oxygen. The baby developed cerebral palsy and did not survive past the age of two and a half. The law firm that handled this malpractice matters on behalf of the child’s family reported that it was able to achieve a settlement in the sum of $1.5 million. This matter serves as an example to physician and nurses. Because extreme high blood pressure can lead to various perilous complications in pregnancy such as placental abruptions it may be malpractice to fail to recognize that one has occurred and take proper and timely steps to protect the wellbeing of the unborn child. Here we have a woman who goes to the hospital equipped to do the required monitoring to check for a possible placental abruption including ultrasound machines and fetal heart rate monitors. The pregnant woman is admitted with extreme high blood pressure which is a know risk factor for a placental abruption. Yet, none of the physicians or nurses at the hospital ordered monitoring her for signs that she could be having a placental abruption until five days into her stay. There is no citation in the report that the expectant mother had pain in the back or abdomen or that she had vaginal bleeding - indications correlated with a placental abruption. But not all expectant mothers who suffer a placental abruption display these signs. An ultrasound, however, can help identify a placental abruption even when the blood is trapped and so the expectant mother does not experience vaginal bleeding. And yet after the fetal distress reached an alarming stage it was still an additional hour before the doctor did a C-section. In pursuing the lawsuit the law firm representing the family in all probability retained medical experts to show that even though the expectant mother's serious hypertension made her susceptible to a placental abruption and therefore the standard of care required that she be carefully followed for that possibility; that there were indications that the unborn child was in fetal distress, and that this situation was permitted to deteriorate greatly without appropriate action, and that these delays forced the baby to experience an extended period of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, resulting in brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and the eventual death of the baby from complications caused by the cerebral palsy. Even though settlements in these types of matters are often agreed to without any admission of malpractice on the part of the defendants it is not surprising that they agreed to a settlement in the sum of $1.5 million. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting birth injury medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about placental abruption and other types of birth injuries including group b strep matters by visiting the websites |
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