Settlement For $457,000 When Physician Did Not Administer Antibiotics For Group B Strep And Newborn Dies
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-08 22:27:01 | Word Count: 554
Group b strep presents significant problems when it impacts a baby.A newborn who acquires a group b strep infection is at significant danger of severe complications and even death. The concern is that there is a serious probability that the infection may turn septic, lead to pneumonia, or even develop into meningitis - every one of which pose a truly dangerous condition for a newborn. Given the dangers a GBS infection poses to new borns physicians in general are in agreement that it is crucial to reduce the threat that the infection will be transferred to the newborn from a mother who carries, or has any of the risk factors, for the bacteria.
Due to this, physicians basically acknowledge that the use of the correct antibiotics is critical during labor if one or more of these factors are present. First, if the expectant mother has a history of carrying the bacteria during a previous pregnancy. Standard screening between weeks 35 and 37 of the pregnancy revealed positive for the bacteria. Doctors also in the main agree that the antibiotics are to be administered during labor when the expectant mother displays any of the risk factors for colonization the bacteria. The kind of risk factor is the rupture of the woman's membranes more than 18 hours before labor. In case the infant does endure an injury (for example blindness, a brain injury, or a seizure disorder) because of the failure by a doctor to provide antibiotics under any of the circumstances above or any others contained in the guidelines, there may be medical malpractice liability.
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Consider the report of a case regarding a 19 year old woman who, prior to reaching full term, was admitted to a hospital to deliver to her baby. The woman had experienced a membrane rupture over eighteen hours previous to entering labor. Her doctor knew this. The physician, unfortunately, failed to give appropriate antibiotics for group b strep. Following delivery, the baby was not breathing. The medical staff at the hospital eventually recognized that this was due to a group b strep infection. Even with efforts at treatment by the hospital staff the child died 2 days after birth as a result of complications from the infection. The law firm that represented the baby's mother was able to report that the case went to trial and the jury returned a verdict in amount of $457,000.
Like this claim illustrates not administering appropriate antibiotics in the course of labor for a woman whose membranes ruptured more than 18 hours before can lead to the transmission of Group B Strep to her baby. The results may be tragic. The baby could suffer irreversible harm or, as in the claim previously mentioned, may not survive. Not administering antibiotics in the course of labor in a case where there is a possibility that the mother may transmit the Group B Strep bacteria to her newborn might amount to medical negligence.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about group b streptococcus and other birth injury cases such as erbs palsy by visiting the websites
