Mother Accepts $650,000 Settlement With Physician In Case After Stillbirth Of Their Child
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-24 18:42:56 | Word Count: 624
A woman who had been dealing with hypertension for numerous years decides that she and her husband want to have a child. After learning of the pregnancy, she met with her primary care physician who referred her to an obstetrician. After discussing her problems with hypertension with her obstetrician, the doctor decides to take her off her hypertension medication based on fear about the health risks it might have on her baby. Her obstetrician therefore chooses to control her condition through diet and manages to keep her blood pressure down for awhile. Yet, the obstetrician could not keep the woman's blood pressure within the normal levels, so her primary care physician and obstetrician agreed to prescriber her one-half of her normal dose.
During the pregnancy the woman's problems came in ebbs and flows. Sometimes things seemed to be doing well and on other occasions she'd have elevated blood pressure, have headaches, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision.
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As she got further into her pregnancy these issues appeared to become more frequent and the doctor observed that she started to leak amniotic fluid, which detected from the amount of protein that was found in her urine. Moreover the obstetrician documented that calcifications were present on the placenta, indicating that portions of the placenta were not getting sufficient oxygen and had died off.
Following the ultrasound, the doctor told the woman that the leakage was not significant and she should not worry about it. He did not inform her that the nutritional levels in her womb had depleted and that it could have an effect on her unborn child. He failed to inform her that her baby had a heightened risk to expeience complications related to fetal hypoxia (being deprived of an adequate oxygen supply). And, furthermore, he did not conduct any tests on the baby to see how the child was developing.
Following this visit the mother continues to suffer from sever headaches, begins to have some sinus problems in her ears and is concerned as she becomes aware her unborn child is not moving as much. At the next appointment tells her physician, who determines he needs to induce labor the coming week. Although she expresses concern about delaying another week, the doctor downplays her concerns and sets up an appointment for her for the following week.
When the pregnant woman got to her doctor's office the following week, she headed in for her pre-labor ultrasound, where she learned that something was not right. The ultrasound technician did not talk to her and then the obstetrician's nurse brought her into a small room with a sofa. There her physician advised her that her baby did not have a heart beat. She then goes to a hospital and the death of the baby was verified. She then had to suffer going through labor, knowing her child was dead. She and her husband held their dead baby and emotionally planned for her funeral. After this event the parents filed a malpractice lawsuit against the physician, seeking damages fro the death of their baby, including emotional distress. After filing the lawsuit against the obstetrician, the law firm handling the matter reported that they were successful in reaching a settlement, obtaining $650,000 on behalf of the couple for the death of their baby and the emotional distress they endured.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting birth injury medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about stillbirth and other birth injury matters by visiting the websites
