Giving Antibiotics To Treat Dangerous Infections in New Born Children
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-14 16:12:03 | Word Count: 584
An expectant mother who is a carrier of the Group b strep can pass on the bacteria to her baby during labor whether or not the mother does not present any symptoms. Research have shown that between approximately 25% of pregnant women are colonized with Group b strep. Lacking treatment, an infant born to a woman who is a carrier of the bacteria has a 1 in 200 chance of developing a Group B Strep infection. By administering appropriate antibiotics during labor the chance that she will pass the Group b strep bacteria to her newborn is decreased by 2,000%.
So as to decide which pregnant women should be administered antibiotics while in labor, asymptomatic pregnant women are screened for group b strep approximately from the 35th and 37th week of the pregnancy. Undergoing testing for Group B Strep is a straightforward process. Because the bacteria typically lives inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the pregnant woman, a swab is used to obtain a sample. The results of the test are typically accessible within forty-eight hours.
If a newborn develops a Group B Strep infection and is not treated immediately, the infection can develop into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that a newborn's immune systems is not totally developed, the newborn may be left with lifelong physical and neurological harm that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the roughly seven thousand six hundred children who are estimated to be infected this year with gorup b strep ten to fifteen percent do not survive.
Given the serious risk a group b streptococcus infection presents for infants, physicians treating an infant who has symptoms consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy should include it in their differential diagnosis. Examine, for instance, a sent to claim in which a child, born to a woman whose GBS screening test had come back positive earlier in the pregnancy during the pregnancy, began to display signs consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. Yet, the pediatrician failed to match the symptoms in the baby's postnatal chart with the prenatal record which recorded that mother had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy. As a result, the proper diagnosis was came late and antibiotics were not administered immediately.
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Given the time that passed before antibiotics were administered, the child suffered brain damage. The law firm that handled this case described that they were able to reach a settlement on behalf of the family for $750,000 with the doctor and $3,125,000 with the hospital.
Babies can develop the group b streptococcus infection even tough antibiotics were given to the mother during labor. Research conducted recently also revealed that there are a number of newborns who manifest the infection regardless of whether the mother screened negative. Physicians thus ought to consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby shows signs consistent with Group B Strep . As this matter illustrates Not reading the prenatal records or considering Group B Strep may constitute liability for medical malpractice.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting birth injury cases. To learn more about group b streptococcus and other birth injury cases including those involving erb's palsy matters visit the websites
