Baby Suffered From Loss Of Oxygen As Nurse Missed Indications Of Fetal Distress
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-09-01 11:13:04 | Word Count: 760
A review of cases involving a birth injury reveals various common medical errors that can end in a placental abruption that places at risk the wellbeing of the unborn child. When a placental abruption occurs the placenta separates from the uterus restricting the baby's supply of oxygen. When an unborn child is subjected to a prolonged amount of time without an adequate supply of oxygen the child may suffer severe brain damage or even die. It might help physicians and nurses to do something to adjust how they handle these matters in the future. The parents can furthermore gain from finding out whether what happened was avoidable if the physicians and nurses involved had not made these sorts of errors.
In one reported case an expectant mother was admitted to the hospital with contractions after eight in the evening before the day of her scheduled C-section delivery. The obstetrician in charge of her care went home to eat. The obstetrician had not been told by the rest of the staff that the expectant mother had suffered a placental abruption during an earlier pregnancy. Approximately twenty minutes following her admission, the readings from the fetal heart rate monitor showed signs of fetal distress. The nurse took no action at the time to inform the obstetrician of this development. In another fifteen minutes the baby's heart rate dropped to less than 90 beats per minute, a critical warning sign. The nurses eventually called the doctor. A further twenty four minutes elapsed before the obstetrician was able to arrive and do an emergency C-section. The baby could not breath on its own and needed resuscitation having suffered a minimum of 20 minutes without a sufficient supply of oxygen after the placenta had ruptured. The law firm that handled the lawsuit published that the took the cases to trial and obtained l verdict of $4.25 Million.
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This matter demonstrates 2 likely types of errors that can result in a failure to detect or to react to a placental abruption. One type of mistake occurs when the responsibility for monitoring the expectant mother is assigned to a nurse. In these circumstances it occasionally happens that the nurse does not figure out that a problem has arisen and hence fails to inform a doctor on the change in the patient's status. It is not always clear why this happens but every now and then a nurse just appears to fail to understand the immediacy of the situation. In some cases the nurse does not have enough experience. Sometimes the nurse might become distracted. Whatever the reason, a doctor is not advised of the complication and valuable time passes by while the baby is in distress.
Another type of mistake is one of proper communication. This type of error occurs regardless of a nurse or other member of the medical staff actually recognizes that there is a complication but nonetheless do not tell a physician. One reason this occasionally happens may be attributable to the hierarchical nature of the relationship among medical staff. Nurses and other staff, even junior physicians, sometimes defer to a senior physician's judgments even when there are apparent indications that the scenario calls for immediate action. However, when a complication arises it is the duty of the nurse or staff member to challenge the physician in charge or seek out another physician. This type of mistake could have been at the root of what happened above. The nurse simply may not have wanted to interrupt the doctor's dinner and held back from doing so until the patient's condition became critical.
In the event that your child sustained a serious injury resulting from a delay by a nurse or other medical profession in reacting to fetal distress, you should confer with a birth injury attorney immediately to figure out if you and your baby may ought to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Due to the seriousness of the injury that may result to the baby this type of mistake the settlement or award may be large so as to cover the cost of the care the baby will need throughout his or her life.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting complex injury cases, including birth injury medical malpractice cases. For a free attorney consultation concerning placental abruption and other
birth injury matters visit the websites
