subject: Parents Reach A $650,000 Settlement With Obstetrician After The Stillbirth Of Their Baby [print this page] A woman who had been suffering from hypertension for years decides with her husband to have a child. She wants to be careful and do everything possible to make sure she has a healthy baby, so when she becomes pregnant she meets with her physician. The physician refers her to an obstetrician who will responsible for helping her with her pregnancy. After discussing her hypertension with the obstetrician, the doctor takes her off her hypertension medication. However, the obstetrician was unable to keep the woman's blood pressure under control, so her primary care physician and obstetrician decided to have her take one-half of the dose she was on prior to her pregnancy.
During her pregnancy the woman begins to suffer from episodes of headaches, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision. Given her symptoms she consistently sees her physician who determines that she had moderate preeclampsia and prescribes her a higher dosage of the blood pressure medication. As her pregnancy progressed these issues seemed to come up more frequently and the obstetrician noted that she began to leak amniotic fluid, which was detected from the amount of protein that was present in her urine. Despite her meeting with the physician to resolve these issues, her condition get progressively worse and more frequent as her pregnancy went on, including leaking amniotic fluid, which can be extremely dangerous and which was noted by the physician.
After one of the latter ultrasounds it should have been noted that that the child's nutrient levels were depleted to the point of risking harm to the baby central nervous system. The doctor only informs her about the leakage but tells her not to worry about it. He did not inform her that the nutritional levels in her womb had gone down and that it could have an effect on her unborn child. Moreover, she did not know that other tests could have be performed on her unborn child to find out how the baby was developing, but that her physician opted not to do them. She was told only that she was suffering from a form of hypertension and that she was leaking some| amniotic fluid.
At her next appointment with the doctor, the woman complained of headaches, that the baby was not moving much and that she had sinus drainage in her ears. Her mother was present during the visit with the doctor and asked that her daughter be induced. Instead of agreeing to have her labor induced then, her obstetrician schedule her for an induced labor the following week.
The following week the woman went into her obstetrician's office to have her baby. The ultrasound technician did not say anything to her and shortly thereafter the obstetrician's nurse came in. The nurse guided her into a small non-examination room. She has her sit down on a sofa and wait for the obstetrician. The obstetrician then came in to tell her that her baby did not have a heartbeat. She was taken to a hospital and the death of the baby was confirmed. Having been told that her child is dead the woman is has to then endure the emotional pain of going through labor to deliver her stillborn baby.
Following this the woman and her husband filed a malpractice lawsuit against the obstetrician, seeking damages relating to the loss of their child, including emotional distress. The law firm that handled this matter on behalf of the parents reported that they were able to settle with the obstetrician for $650,000 on behalf of the woman and her husband.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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