Jury Gives $4,250,000 To Family Whose Infant Injured While Nurse Let Obstetrician Eat Dinner
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-02 02:44:03 | Word Count: 732
There are some types of mistakes physicians make when confronted with a pregnant woman suffering from a placental abruption. The reason that an abruption of the placental is so high risk for the unborn baby is that is can significantly decrease the quantity of oxygen getting to the baby. This can result in considerable and irriversible harm to the child. It may also lead to the death of the child. It might cause physicians and nurses to do something to adjust how they deal with these matters in the future. The parents can also gain from finding out ?f what occurred was preventable if the doctors and nurses involved had not made these types of mistakes.
A pregnant woman went to the hospital with contractions at approximately 8:25 the evening one day before her planned C-section delivery. The woman had a history of a prior placental abruption. The obstetrician, however, who was not notified of her history, decided to go home and have dinner. Within 20 minutes after 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 under ninety beats per minute, a problematic warning sign. The nurses finally called the obstetrician. A further twenty four minutes elapsed before the physician was able to arrive and perform an emergency C-section. The baby was unable to breath on its own and the medical staff tried to resuscitate the infant who had suffered at least 20 minutes of oxygen deprivation after the placenta had ruptured. The law firm that pursued the case reported that the took the claim to trial and achieved l verdict of $4.25 Million.
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This lawsuit demonstrates two common types of errors that can bring about a failure to identify or to act upon a placental abruption. One kind of mistake comes up when the responsibility for monitoring the pregnant woman is assigned to a nurse. In these circumstances it sometimes happens that the nurse does not recognize that a problem has come up and hence does not inform a physician on the change in the patient's status. It is not always clear why this happens but there are times when a nurse just appears to fail to understand the immediacy of the situation. Sometimes the nurse has insufficient experience. Sometimes the nurse might become distracted. Whatever the reason, a physician is not informed of the problem and valuable time passes by while the baby is in distress.
One more type of mistake has to do with the way information is communicated. This kind of mistake occurs even though a nurse or other member of the medical staff actually recognizes that there is a problem but still do not inform a physician. One reason this sometimes occurs is because of the hierarchical form of relationship among medical staff. Nurses and other staff, including junior doctors, sometimes defer to a senior physician's choices even in the presence of clear signs that the situation calls for urgent action. But, if a complication arises it is the responsibility of the nurse or staff member to inform the doctor in charge or find another physician. This type of mistake could have been at the root of what happened above. The nurse just might not have wished to interrupt the doctor's dinner and held back from doing so until the situation reached dangerous levels.
If your child sustained a serious injury due to a delay on the part of a nurse or other medical profession in reacting to fetal distress, you should seek the advice of a birth injury lawyer without delay to figure out if you and your baby may ought to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Because of the severity of the harm that can result to the baby this type of mistake the settlement or award may be significant so as to protect the child's future.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about placental abruption and other
birth injury matters visit the websites
