Child Suffered Brain Damage Due To Undiagnosed Placental Abruption
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-08 21:16:48 | Word Count: 681
A high risk diagnostic predicament that arises with regular frequency is the failure to correctly diagnose non-specific symptoms. This is a particularly disturbing matter if it occurs in the context of a pregnancy.
For example, consider the complication known as a placental abruption. A placental abruption occurs when the placenta (which contains the unborn child) detaches from the mother's uterus prematurely. As this takes place blood vessels are ripped resulting in bleeding. The loss of blood leads to a loss of oxygen to the baby. And the loss of oxygen can cause brain damage. In severe cases, the loss of blood may further jeopardize the life of the mother.
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The common indications of placental abruption include unrelenting extreme back and abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. Not all cases, however, have vaginal bleeding since the blood can get trapped and thus not be visible. Therefore, when a woman tells a medical professional about persistent severe back or abdominal pain this ought to heighten the suspicion of a potential placental abruption. In these circumstances various blood tests, like hematocrit and hemoglobin levels, may reveal whether there is internal bleeding. Furthermore an ultrasound may reveal pooled blood trapped behind the placenta.
With this consider the case in which a pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital at 30 weeks into the pregnancy with back pain and little, if any, fetal movement. The staff connected her to a fetal heart rate monitor and interpreted the output as falling within the normal range. The woman, however, kept reporting that she had severe back pain and an inability to urinate. The staff considered the posibility that she might have a kidney stone and thereby ordered tests to determine if this was the reason for her symptoms. Still this did not come about until approximately 2 hours after she had been admitted.
It was not until 6 hours after her admission that an ultrasound was performed. The ultrasound showed that the expectant mother had had a placental abruption that had left a large internal blood clot. At this point the physician finally performed an emergency C-section. By that time, however, the unborn child had sustained a loss of blood and oxygen to the brain leading to brain damage. As a result, the child developed spastic quadriplegia.
The defense took the position that the C-section was performed at the earliest chance and that the hemorrhaging would have taken place even if alternate care had been provided. The law firm that represented the family took the matter to trial and presented evidence that the physician ought to have performed the C-section after the results of the blood and urine tests were available - as the evidence suggested should have been read as revealing a likely placental abruption.
The evidence suggested that the doctor focused on the wrong differential diagnosis (kidney stone and not placental abruption) and having done so, failed to grasp that the test results provided additional information pointing to a placental abruption. Rather, the hemorrhaging from the placental abruption reached a grade 4 which involves extensive bleeding because of the tearing of blood vessels as the placenta detaches from the uterine lining. The law firm that handled the lasuit reported a settlement in the amount of $2,500,000. The child was 2 years old at the time of the settlement.
As this incident shows it is not sufficient for a physician to rule out a given diagnosis as the cause of symptoms displayed by a pregnant patient. The physician still should take into account the symptoms. Not doing so, even if presented with a range of sources of information consistent with a high risk problem, may lead to permanent injury to the child. When this happens the doctor might face a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting complex injury cases. For further information on placental abruption and other
birth injury matters including streptococcus meningitis visit the websites
