Jury Multi-Million Award For Mother After The Loss Of Her Baby Due To Delay In Medical Care
Jury Multi-Million Award For Mother After The Loss Of Her Baby Due To Delay In Medical Care
Paramedics, who are usually the first on the scene of a medical emergency need to provide treatment that meets the applicable standard of care. As the first to respond we expect paramedics to have the knowledge, training, and experience to differentiate between conditions that can be treated at the scene from the ones that require urgent transport to a hospital with the necessary equipment and full medical staff. Below we explore a lawsuit in which paramedics answered a call from a pregnant woman who had suffered a placental abruption at almost full term of her pregnancy. By the time the paramedics arrived at the house the pregnant woman was in shock due to abrupt blood loss caused by a placental abruption. The paramedics failed to appreciate the urgency of the circumstance and took approximately eighteen minutes prior to transporting her to the hospital.
The total delay in the time it took the paramedics before they made the decision to transport the pregnant woman to the hospital where the child was delivered was 18 minutes or more. During the 18 minute delay before the pregnant woman was taken to the hospital her baby was deprived of necessary oxygen due to her blood loss from the placental abruption.. The infant lived for only one day after birth. The woman required further surgery to stop the severe bleeding and she suffered from temporary kidney failure due to the loss of blood. The mother retained a law firm to initiate a lawsuit for malpractice resulting in the death of her baby.
Each State has its own specific laws regarding medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. A number of States have laws that permit only the mother to go forward with a claim for the loss of newborn due to malpractice. In the State where this lawsuit arose the legal requirements for a mother to pursue a claim for the emotional harm she experienced due to her newborn's are as follow. First, that the mother suffered a physical injury. Second, that the injury was one that would normally not happen in a normal childbirth. And third, that the injury to the mother was caused by the same act of malpractice that resulted in the newborn's death. Within six moths of the death of her newborn's death the mother began suffering from a deep depression. Even With a treatment regimen consisting of therapy and medication, the mother was still struggling with the depression at the time of the law firm's report. All these requisites were present in this case.
The law firm was able to report that they took the case to trial and achieved a verdict of $4.5 million on behalf of the woman. This case shows that if paramedics cause serious harm by not meeting the standard of care they can be liable for malpractice.