$3,875,000 Settlement For Baby's Brain Injury After Pediatrician Failed to Realize Baby Had Group B Strep
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-10-14 19:37:23 | Word Count: 608
An expectant mother who is a carrier of the group b strep can pass on the bacteria to her child during labor even if the mother does not present any symptoms. Studies have shown that from fifteen to forty percent of expecting mothers are colonized with group b streptococcus. If there is no intervention, a baby born to a woman who is a carrier of the bacteria has a 1 in 200 possibility of developing a Group B Strep infection. By giving the mother the right antibiotics as she starts labor the chance of the mother passing the group b strep bacteria to her infant is diminished by 2,000%.
To be able to figure out which women require antibiotics during labor, expecting mothers without any symptoms are tested for group b strep approximately from the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Getting tested for group b streptococcus is a straightforward procedure. Since the bacteria typically colonizes inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the mother, a swab is used to acquire a sample. The results of the test are frequently obtainable within forty-eight hours.
[ advertisement ]
In the event that a baby develops a Group B Strep infection and is not treated immediately, the infection can turn into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that an infant's immune systems is not completely developed, the baby may be left with lifelong physical and neurological damage that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately 7,600 newborns who are estimated to be infected this year with GBS there is a mortality rate of 10-15%.
With the severe danger a Group B Strep infection poses for babies, doctors examining a baby who has signs consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy need to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. See, for instance, a reported case in which a baby, born to a woman who had a known history of being a GBS carrier during the pregnancy, started to display indications consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. However, the pediatrician failed to match the symptoms in the baby's postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which showed that the group b streptococcus bacteria had been detected in the mother during the pregnancy. Consequently, the right diagnosis was postponed and antibiotics were not administered immediately.
As a result of the time that passed before antibiotics were administered, the newborn suffered a brain injury. The law firm that represented the family announced that they were able to reach a settlement on behalf of the family for $750,000 with the physician and $3,125,000 with the hospital.
Newborns can develop the GBS infection even if antibiotics were administered to the mother in the course of labor. Research conducted recently also showed that a certain number of newborns who develop the infection even though the mother tested negative. Doctors thus need to consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby displays symptoms consistent with Group B Strep . As this case illustrates The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep may result in liability for medical malpractice.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. To learn more about group b streptococcus and other birth injury cases including those involving erbs palsy matters visit the websites
