Medical Professionals - Face Malpractice Claim If Child Harmed By Dismissed Signs Of Fetal Distress
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-17 03:06:22 | Word Count: 780
Several factors may put a pregnancy at high risk. One such factor, high blood pressure, placed a pregnant woman at high risk for a placental abruption. This is a condition in which the placenta separates from the uterus prematurely. If this happens the blood vessels in the vicinity are torn bringing about bleeding that can considerable decrease the amount of oxygen that reached the baby. Unless a doctor takes steps immediately - possibly with a C-section - the unborn child may suffer brain damage or even die.
Think about a malpractice matter in which a pregnant woman went to the hospital at 35 weeks into the pregnancy for extreme hypertension which was induced by the pregnancy. She was in the hospital for 5 days before anyone in the medical staff ordered that the fetal heart rate be monitored. This did not happen until her condition deteriorated. The monitor showed that the fetus was in distress. Drugs were given to her in order to induce labor.
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Eight hours later the monitor showed that the baby was in severe distress. At this point a placental abruption was finally diagnosed. Even after that it sill took an additional hour before the doctor performed a C-section. As a result of the delay the baby sustained a kind of brain damage known as acute hypoxic-ischemia which comes about from a loss of oxygen.
The child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and an died from complications at two and a half. The law firm that represented the child's family documented that it accomplished a settlement in the amount of $1,500,000.
This malpractice matter holds a valuable lesson for doctors and nurses. Because extreme high blood pressure is known to result in various perilous problems in pregnancy including placental abruptions it may be malpractice to not recognize that one has occurred and act immediately to protect the baby's health.
Here we have a woman who is admitted to the hospital with all the equipment necessary to monitor for a potential placental abruption including ultrasound machines and fetal heart rate monitors. The pregnant woman is admitted with severe high blood pressure which is a know risk factor for a placental abruption. Yet, none of the doctors or nurses at the hospital gets her connected to a monitor to check for signs that she might experience a placental abruption until 5 days after her admission.
There is no citation in the report that the expectant mother had pain in the back or abdomen or that she was experiencing vaginal bleeding - signs correlated with a placental abruption. But not all women who experience a placental abruption display these signs. An ultrasound, however, may be able to pick up a placental abruption in which the blood is contained and so the expectant mother does not have vaginal bleeding. And yet after the fetal distress got to an alarming stage it was still an additional hour before the doctor did a C-section.
In pursuing the malpractice claim the law firm representing the parents in all likelihood used medical experts to show
(1) that the mother's extreme hypertension placed her at risk of a placental abruption and thus required that she be closely followed for that possibility,
(2) that there were signs that the baby was in fetal distress and that this condition was allowed to worsen greatly without proper action,
(3) that there was still a futher holdup even as the fetal distress reached a severe level of an additional hour before a C-section was done,
(4) that these delays caused the baby to experience an extended amount of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, and
(5) that this resulted in brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and ultimately the death of the child from complications due to cerebral palsy.
and that these delays caused the unborn child to experience a prolonged period of time without an adequate oxygen supply, resulting in brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and ultimately the death of the child from complications due to cerebral palsy.
Despite the fact that settlements in these kind of lawsuits are routinely reached without any admission of negligence on the part of the defendants it is not surprising that they agreed to a settlement in the sum of $1,500,000.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting complex injury cases, including birth injury medical malpractice cases. Find out more concerning placental abruption and other
birth injury matters visit the websites
