subject: Baby Exposed To Oxygen Deprivation During Time Nurse Ignored Signs Of Fetal Distress [print this page] A review of lawsuits involving a birth injury reveals a number of frequently occurring medical mistakes that can end in a placental abruption that endangers the safety of the unborn baby. When a placental abruption happens the placenta detaches from the uterus cutting off the unborn child's availability of oxygen. This can lead to significant permanent damage to the baby. It can also end in the loss of the baby. Physicians and nurses might work with the knowledge of these generic errors to modify their approach should they be presented with other placental abruption cases. The parents can also benefit from knowing f what happened was preventable if the physicians and nurses involved had not made these types of errors.
A pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital with contractions after eight in the evening one day before her scheduled C-section delivery. The obstetrician in charge of her care went home to eat. The obstetrician had not been told by the rest of the staff that the expectant mother had suffered a placental abruption during an earlier pregnancy. Approximately twenty minutes after her admission, the readings from the fetal heart rate monitor showed signs of fetal distress. The nurse took no action at the time to inform the obstetrician of this development. After another fifteen minutes the unborn child's heart rate decreased to less than 90 beats per minute, a critical warning sign. The nurses finally called the doctor. It took 24 minutes for the physician to get to the hospital and do an emergency C-section. The baby was unable to breath on its own and the medical staff attempted to resuscitate the child who had suffered a minimum of twenty minutes without a sufficient supply of oxygen after the placenta had ruptured. The law firm that helped the family the case reported a $4.25 million award by a jury on behalf of the family.
The above is an example of likely types of mistakes that can bring about a failure to identify or to react to a placental abruption. One type of mistake arises when the responsibility for monitoring the expectant mother is allocated to a nurse. In these circumstances it sometimes comes about that the nurse fails to understand that a complication has arisen and therefore fails to inform a physician about the change in the patients status. It is not always apparent why this comes about but there are times when a nurse simply appears to fail to realize the immediacy of the situation. Sometimes the nurse has insufficient experience. Sometimes something else may take the nurse's attention away from the patient. Whatever the reason, a doctor does not get notified of the problem and precious time goes by while the baby is in distress.
A further type of error is one of proper communication. This type of error happens even though a nurse or other member of the medical staff actually recognizes that there is a complication but nonetheless do not inform a doctor. One reason this sometimes occurs is because of the hierarchical form of relationship among medical staff. Nurses and other staff, even junior doctors, sometimes defer to a senior physician's judgments even when there are obvious clues that the situation requires urgent action. However, when a complication arises it is the duty of the nurse or staff member to inform the physician in charge or seek out a different physician. This sort of mistake could have been at the root of what happened above. The nurse simply may not have wished to disturb the physician's dinner and only did so when the patient's condition reached dangerous levels.
If your child has been left with brain damage resulting from a delay by a nurse or other medical profession in reacting to fetal distress, you ought to confer with a birth injury attorney at once to determine whether you ought to file a medical malpractice claim. Because of the severity of the harm that may result to the child this type of error the settlement or award may be substantial in order to cover the care the baby will require for the remainder of his or her life.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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