subject: Parents Settle Case For $4.5 Million Due To Nurse Missing Indications Of Placental Abruption [print this page] Parents Settle Case For $4.5 Million Due To Nurse Missing Indications Of Placental Abruption
It is common for expectant mothers to place themselves and their unborn child in the care of a physician who will get them through childbirth. It may often take time after the patient is admitted to the hospital until the newborn is delivered. In somepart of this time physicians often depend on the nurses and staff to check the expectant mother's progress and to keep them up to date of any complications that might arise.
The physician is stil responsible for supervising the nurses and staff. Also, the nurses and staff are accountable for having the knowledge, training and experience to identify symptoms of problems and for telling the doctor when they do come up. Unfortunately, nurses and staff on occasion fail to meet these demands.
Look at the published case regarding a pregnant woman at full term commenced experiencing contractions at at home. On the way the local hospital the woman also commenced having nonstop extreme pain. Upon reaching the hospital the woman informed the admitting nurse that she was in major pain and that she thought something was wrong. The pregnant woman was transferred to the Labor and Delivery unit but the nurse either failed to understand or ignored her complaints and did not call the physician, who had not arrived at the hospital, to inform him.
Rather the nurse acted like this was a standard pregnancy. Critical time passed before she even started following the fetal heart rate. As soon as she finally did figure out that the unborn baby was in fetal distress. Now the nurse did inform the obstetrician, who still was not in the hospital, by telephone. Another doctor on the unit took charge and performed an emergency C-section. The extreme pain had been due to a placental abruption. The placental abruption cased the unborn baby to suffer from a lack of oxygen causing serious brain injury. The newborn is disabled for life and has to have full time attention. The law firm that represented the family reported that they were able to accomplish a recovery for $4,500,000 from the hospital for the nursing staff's failure to recognize that the pregnant woman had experienced a placental abruption.
In this claim the patient actually flagged the nurse of her sensation that there was a problem with the pregnancy. At this stage in the pregnancy intense persistent abdominal pain can be due to a placental abruption.
It is not clear why the nurse did not put these together. If she disregarded the patient's complaints, failed to hear them, did not have the appropriate knowledge, training or experience to correctly understand the situation, or discounted the patient's complaints on the grounds that a placental abruption is often (though not every time) accompanied by visible vaginal bleeding, she missed signs of a serious problem.
The result, however, was a serious injury to the unborn baby resulting in a lifelong disability. Due to the damage caused by the nurse's error the law firm that represented the family documented that it was able to obtain a settlement intented to ensure that the baby has appropriate care for life.
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