Oct 31 2009
Case Alleging Delay In Reaction To Placental Abruption Lead To Death Of Child Settles For $1.1 Million
Statistically, 27 out of every 1000 babies suffer a birth injury. There are many complications that can take place during the pregnancy as well as during labor and delivery. Some of these complications can threaten the health and even the life of the baby and the mother. One such complication is a placental abruption. A placental abruption is a condition in which the placenta which encases the unborn baby separates from the mother’s uterus. When this happens the blood vessels in the area are torn apart. The resulting loss of blood causes a drop in the oxygen supply reaching the unborn baby. A lack of necessary levels of oxygen for an extended period of time can cause brain damage and can even result in a stillbirth
While many birth injuries are unavoidable, a number of them are the result of medical malpractice. In one reported case after was a delay in diagnosing a placental abruption and the baby was born with drain damage, a known risk of a placental abruption. A lawsuit followed alleging medical malpractice and the parties reached a settlement.
A young nineteen year old expectant mother in the early stages of labor was admitted to the hospital. The expectant mother reported having continuous abdominal pain. After her admission the obstetrics nurse observed that she had a hard abdomen and constant uterine contractions. Not long after, expectant mother starting having vaginal bleeding. The bleeding was severe, and required continuous changing of towels to soak up the blood. The nurse did not advise a doctor and instead had the mother get additional towels from the linen closet and keep replacing them herself.
Four to five hours following her admission to the hospital, the expectant mother started having severe pain. Again, the nurse failed to notify a doctor. The nurse just simply administered pain medication to the mother, merely masking the pain.Approximately five minutes later, the fetal heart rate went flat.The nurse concluded this was merely due to a response to the pain medication.She did not even attempt rule out a lack of oxygen to the baby as the reason. It took her an additional fifty minutes after the monitor went flat for the nurse to finally call a doctor.
When a physician arrived, meconium was found and progressive deep decelerations of the baby’s heart rate were noted. The attending obstetrician then also arrived and decided to perform an emergency C-section. No anesthesiologist was available at the time and so the doctor performed the C-section using only local anesthesia. The obstetrician found that the expectant mother had experienced a placental abruption. The doctor observed signs of resulting neurological damage to the baby later confirmed by radiographic testing.
The child was later diagnosed with developmental and mental retardation. Given his injuries the child needs occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy, and will permanently require life care. He has a life expectancy into the 40’s. The law firm that handled the case on behalf of the parents and the child was able to report that they achieved a settlement of ,100,000, of which ,000 was for the parents, and the remainder was for the child. Part of the settlement was structured so that the child would have a steady income stream into the future.
Analysis:
In this case the nurse was left to monitor the expectant mother’s progress without a doctor’s supervision. Common signs of a placental abruption in a late-term pregnancy are severe abdominal or lower back pain and persistent vaginal bleeding. The pregnant woman had both but the nurse did nothing. The nurse also failed to take immediate action when the tracings from the fetal heart rate monitor going flat. The first physician did nothing after observing the presence of meconium and the progressive deep decelerations of the baby’s heart rate - two signs that the unborn baby was in severe fetal distress. The decision to perform an emergency C-section was not made until the attending obstetrician arrived. By then the damage had been done. The lack of responsiveness to signs of complications formed the basis of the parent’s claim of malpractice. The result: a settlement for $1.1 million.
