Medical Malpractice Cases For Infants With Cerebral Palsy Resolved By Multi-Million Dollar Jury Awards
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-16 20:11:15 | Word Count: 758
Nurses play a critical role in the medical health care system. Nurses frequently take responsibility for monitoring patients and letting doctors know about any change in the patient's condition that might affect the patient's treatment. Sometimes, though, whether due to insufficient knowledge, training, or experience, a nurse fails to either observe that there has been a worsening of the patient's health or does not relay that change to a physician.
One case reported recently revealed the way a pregnant woman went to the hospital with suffering from nausea and vomiting. After she was admitted a nurse trainee examined her and monitored her condition. It was the nurse trainee, and not a registered nurse or a doctor who interpreted the strip from the fetal heart rate monitor. Interpreting the strip as normal and deciding that there was no danger to the unborn baby, the nurse trainee discharged the expectant mother. In reality, the baby's oxygen supply was significantly impeded and that the baby's health was in grave danger..
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Three days after the infant was delivered as scheduled. She needed therapy. She was not able to eat by herself and therefore had to be fed with a feeding tube. For four years she had to endure seizures. And she died from complications of the cerebral palsy. She was survived by her father and mother and by her 2 older brothers. One was 11 and one was 16. The law firm that represented the parents was able to report that they took the case to trial and achieved a verdict on behalf of the parents in the amount of $4,400,000.
The next example is a recently reported case involving a pregnant woman who was admitted to the hospital for a scheduled vaginal delivery of her baby. She underwent a C-section in a prior pregnancy but the nurse administered a drug frequently employed to induce labor. The application of this drug , however, needs to be carefully followed for the reason that it can result in hyperstimulation of the uterus and end up a significant complication especially at greater levels. The nurse did not notify the attending physician that the pregnant woman's contractions became irregular Instead, even though the contractions increased to clearly dangerous levels, the nurse kept administering greater quantities of the drug.
The child was denied essential oxygen for an interval of roughly 18-20 minutes from what was later determined to be a uterine rupture. The baby was in fetal distress while in this period - a situation that can be tracked by a machine which monitors the unborn baby's heart rate. He has significant cerebral palsy. He is unable to walk or to talk. He is unable to hold objects in his hands. He is unable to eat on his own and requires a feeding tube. He can, though, recognize members of his family and is alert. However he will require full-time life assistance. The law firm that represented the family reported that the lawsuit went to trial and the jury delivered a verdict of $31 Million. This total included $26,000,000 to cover future medical care.
As the 2 cases above demonstrate, an error by a nurse can have terrible consequences for a patient, and when an expectant mother is involved, two lives are in danger. The nurse may later face a medical malpractice lawsuit. With the severity of the harm that can occur to both the mother and the baby from these kinds of errors the recovery from this type of a lawsuit can be substantial. If you think your child suffered a significant injury due to a nurse's mistake, you ought to contact a medical malpractice attorney. Because a plaintiff only has a limited amount of time to file a claim in Court you should contact a lawyer right away.
In the event that your child sustained a serious injury due to group b strep and you think medical malpractice was present, please check with an attorney without delay. The lawyer should be able to inform you how much time, if any, remains to file a lawsuit and assist you in finding out whether to file the case.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting fetal distress cases. You can learn more about fetal distress and other birth injury matters visit the website
