Parents Recover Sum Of $1.5 Million In Malpractice Claim For Brain Injury To Baby

There are certain factors that can put a pregnancy at high risk. One such factor, high blood pressure, placed an expectant mother at high risk of a placental abruption. This is a condition in which the placenta detaches from the uterus prematurely. If this happens the blood vessels in the region are torn triggering bleeding that may significantly decrease the amount of oxygen that reached the baby. Unless a doctor takes steps right away - possibly with a C-section - the baby is in danger of sustaining brain damage that may produce a permanent impairment or perhaps die.

Consider a case concerning a pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital in the thirty fifth week of her pregnancy for substantial hypertension which was induced by the pregnancy. It took 5 days after her admission before anyone ordered that she be connected to a fetal heart rate monitor machine. The monitoring was ordered only after the mother’s condition worsened. The display showed that the fetus was in distress. An agent was administered so as to bring about labor. After 8 hours of monitoring and the fetal distress reaching ominous levels a placental abruption was finally diagnosed. Even then another hour passed before the doctor performed a C-section. Because of the delay the child suffered a kind of brain damage referred to as acute hypoxic-ischemia which comes about from a loss of oxygen.

The baby was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and passed away at two and a half. The law firm that handled this cases on behalf of the child’s family reported that it accomplished a settlement in the sum of $1.5 million.

As this lawsuit indicates given that extreme high blood pressure can trigger various dangerous complications in pregnancy including placental abruptions it may be malpractice to not determine that one has occurred and act immediately to protect the wellbeing of the unborn child.

Here we have an expectant mother who goes to the hospital equipped to do the required monitoring for a possible placental abruption including ultrasound machines and fetal heart rate monitors. She is experiencing extreme high blood pressure which is correlated with placental abruptions a placental abruption. However, none of the doctors or nurses at the hospital gets her connected to a monitor to check for signs that she could be having a placental abruption until 5 days into her stay.

There is no mention in the report that the woman had pain in the back or abdomen or that she had vaginal bleeding - symptoms correlated with a placental abruption. Still not all women who suffer a placental abruption display these symptoms. An ultrasound, however, can be able to find a placental abruption in which the blood is trapped and so the woman does not experience vaginal bleeding. And even after the fetal distress reached an alarming stage it was still an additional hour before the physician did a C-section.

In pursuing the malpractice claim the law firm representing the parents in all probability retained medical experts to show

that even though the mother’s severe hypertension made her susceptible to a placental abruption and thus called for her to be closely followed for that possibility; that there were signs that the unborn child was in fetal distress, and that this condition was permitted to intensify greatly without appropriate action, and that these delays forced the unborn child to go for an extended stretch of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, leading to brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and ultimately the death of the child from complications caused by the cerebral palsy.

Although settlements in these types of cases are routinely reached without any admission of negligence on the part of the defendants it is not surprising that they agreed to a settlement for one and a half million dollars.

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