Doctor Abandoned Expectant Mother Who Suffered Placental Abruption And Lost Baby
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-09-26 19:23:36 | Word Count: 532
Women pick their obstetrician carefully. And then over the course of their pregnancy they come to develop a bond with the doctor and begin to have faith in him or her. They normally trust their obstetrician, who has been following the pregnancy throughout, knows their situation better than any other doctor could.
If a physician commits to go to the hospital to meet their patient most people would expect the physician to actually show up. Most people would also assume that, if a problem arises with the patient's pregnancy, the staff at the hospital will take proper steps and not simply keep waiting for the physician to show up losing precious time in which no treatment is provided to the patient. Surprisingly, this is not always what happens.
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In a reported lawsuit an woman who, at near term of her pregnancy, was taken to a hospital after she fell to check on the welfare of her unborn child. An ultrasound was read as negative and as not indication any evidence of harm to the unborn child from the mother's fall. The woman continued to be concerned about the wellbeing of her child and requested fetal heart rate monitoring. Since the hospital did not have the proper equipment they arranged to have her transferred to a second hospital which did. The staff contacted the expectant mother's obstetrician who told them that he would meet her at the other hospital.
After being moved to the second hospital she was connected to monitoring equipment. Her obstetrician had not arrived. The monitor indicated that the baby was in fetal distress and that the baby's condition was deteriorating. After waiting for two hours and the baby's heart rate had fallen to dangerously low levels the labor and delivery nurse finally alerted another obstetrician of the situation.
Once notified of the situation this obstetrician went forward with an emergency C-section. During surgery the physician found that the woman had sustained a placental abruption which in turn had led to a lack of critical quantities of oxygen reaching the unborn child. The baby was not breathing when born and all attempts at resuscitating the baby failed.
The law firm that represented the family uncovered that the woman's obstetrician, athough saying he would see her at the second hospital, had rather gone home and simply did not make the effort to tell anyone at the hospital about that choice. And the labor and delivery nurse, the only one who had information that the unborn child was in fetal distress, kept waiting for the obstetrician - not contacting the obstetrician herself to report the fetal distress and did not notify the in-house obstetrician until the situation turned dire. With this, the law firm reported that they reached a settlement for seven hundred fifty thousand dollars on behalf of the baby's parents.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. To learn more about placental abruption and other
birth injury matters including group b strep visit the websites
