Family Recovers $1.5 Million For Brain Injury To Child

Family Recovers $1.5 Million For Brain Injury To Child

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Several factors may place a pregnancy at high risk. One of these is an elevated blood pressure which may put an expectant mother at high risk of a placental abruption. This is a situation wherein the placenta separates from the uterus early. When this occurs the blood vessels in the area are torn triggering bleeding that can restric the unborn babys oxygen supply. If appropriate and timely measures, such as an emergency C-section, is not taken the unborn child is in danger of sustaining brain damage that may end up in a lifelong impairment or perhaps die.

Look at a matter in which an expectant mother went to the hospital in the thirty fifth week of her pregnancy for substantial hypertension which was induced by the pregnancy. The woman was in the hospital for five days before anyone ordered that she be connected to a fetal heart rate monitor machine. This did not happen until her condition deteriorated. The display showed that the fetus was in distress. Medication was given to her in order to bring about labor. After eight hours of tacking her with the fetal distress reaching ominous levels a placental abruption was at last diagnosed. Even after that it sill took an additional hour before the doctor performed a C-section. Due to the delay the baby suffered a type 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 an died from complications at two and a half. The law firm that handled this lawsuits on behalf of the childs family documented that it accomplished a settlement for one and a half million dollars. As this lawsuit illustrates since significant high blood pressure is known to lead to certain perilous complications in pregnancy including placental abruptions it may be malpractice to not detect one when it has occurred and take proper and timely steps to protect the wellbeing of the unborn child.

Here we have an expectant mother who goes to the hospital with all the equipment necessary to monitor for a potential placental abruption including ultrasound machines and fetal heart rate monitors. The expectant mother is experiencing severe high blood pressure which is a know risk factor for a placental abruption. Nonetheless, none of the physicians or nurses at the hospital gets her connected to a monitor to check for signs that she could be having a placental abruption until five days after her admission.

There is no indication in the document that the expectant mother had pain in the back or abdomen or that she had vaginal bleeding - indications consistent with a placental abruption. Still not all expectant mothers who experience a placental abruption have these symptoms. An ultrasound, however, may help identify a placental abruption in which the blood is hidden and so the woman does not have vaginal bleeding. And even after the fetal distress reached dangerous levels it was still an additional hour before the doctor did a C-section.

In litigating the lawsuit the law firm representing the parents no doubt would, with the assistance of medical experts, have pointed to the facts of the matters as establishing

(1) that the expectant mother's severe hypertension made her susceptible to a placental abruption and so required that she be closely monitored for that possibility,

(2) that there were signs that the baby was in fetal distress and that this condition was allowed to deteriorate significantly without proper action,

(3) that there was still a futher delay even when the fetal distress reached ominous levels of an additional hour before a C-section was done,

(4) that these delays caused the baby to experience an extended period 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 baby from complications due to cerebral palsy.

and that these delays caused the unborn child to experience an extended amount of time without a sufficient 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 cases are often agreed to without any admission of negligence on the part of the medical staff or hospital it is not surprising that they settled the matter for one and a half million dollars.

About the Author:
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting birth injury cases. To learn more about placental abruption and other birth injury matters including group b strep visit the websites



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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