subject: Mother Initiates Case Against First Responders For Acts Resulting In Child's Stillbirth [print this page] Paramedics, who are usually the first on the scene of a medical emergency must administer treatment that meets the applicable standard of care. As the first to respond we count on paramedics to have the knowledge, training, and experience to discern between conditions that can be treated at the scene from the ones that need immediate transport to a hospital with the proper equipment and full medical staff.
This article analyzes a lawsuit involving an expectant mother who called in from her house in the very early morning complications from her pregnancy. When the paramedics responded the pregnant woman was in shock due to a sudden loss of blood caused by a placental abruption. The paramedics failed to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and took about 18 minutes prior to taking her to the hospital.
The case alleged that the failure on the part of the paramedics to take quick action leaded to a delay of at least eighteen minutes. In the 18 minute delay prior to being taken to the hospital the baby was deprived of necessary oxygen due to the mother's blood loss from the placental abruption.. The infant died the day after being born. The mother's blood loss was so excessive that she required further surgery to control the bleeding and later temporarily lost kidney function. The mother retained a law firm to initiate a lawsuit for malpractice resulting in the death of her baby.
States have different laws in cases concerning the death of a baby. The State in which this lawsuit arose, for example, mandated that for a mother to succeed on a claim for the emotional damage she experienced from the loss of her baby she first needs to show that she endured a physical injury that was due to the same negligence that caused the death of the child and that the mother's physical injury would not have typically occurred in a normal childbirth.
After 6 months from the passing of her baby, she started struggling with severe depression which, even though she followed a regimen of therapy and prescribed drugs, lasted through the time of the law firm's account of the case and will need the lifelong need for medication. The mother met those requirements.|All three requisites were fulfilled in this matter.|Given the injuries the woman herself sustained as a result of the delay by the paramedics, she was able to pursue a case.
The mother was successful. The law firm that represented the mother reported that after taking the case to trial the jury returned a verdict in her favor and awarded her $4,500,000. As this case illustrates, health care providers such as paramedics are held accountable for providing care that is in keeping with the applicable standard of care. When they fail to do so they might be liable for malpractice.
by: Joseph Hernandez
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
