Parents Recover $1,500,000 For Their Child's Disability

There are a number of factors that can place a pregnancy at high risk. One of these is an elevated blood pressure which may put an expectant mother at high risk for a placental abruption. This is a condition in which the placenta detaches from the uterus prematurely. If this happens the blood vessels in the area are torn causing bleeding that can restric the unborn child's oxygen supply. If effective and timely action, such as an emergency C-section, is not taken the baby may suffer brain damage or even die.

Consider a malpractice matter concerning an expectant mother went to the hospital in the thirty fifth week of her pregnancy for extreme hypertension which was brought on by the pregnancy. It took 5 days after her admission before anyone in the medical staff ordered that the expectant mother be connected to a fetal heart rate monitor machine. This did not happen until her condition deteriorated. Despite the fact that the output of the monitor exposed that the baby was in distress the staff gave the mother drugs to induce her labor. After eight hours of monitoring and the fetal distress becoming severe a placental abruption was finally diagnosed. Even then another hour passed before the physician did a C-section. Because of the holdup the child sustained a form of brain damage known as acute hypoxic-ischemia which comes about from a loss of oxygen.

The child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and an died from complications at two and a half. The law firm that handled this malpractice matters on behalf of the child’s family documented that it accomplished a settlement in the amount of one and a half million dollars. This malpractice matter serves as an example to medical professionals. Because extreme high blood pressure is known to trigger various perilous complications in pregnancy including placental abruptions it may be malpractice to fail to diagnose one when it has occurred and act immediately to protect the wellbeing of the unborn child.

Here we have a woman who goes to the hospital with all the equipment necessary to monitor for a possible placental abruption including ultrasound machines and fetal heart rate monitors. She is experiencing severe high blood pressure which is correlated with placental abruptions a placental abruption. Yet, none of the doctors or nurses at the hospital gets her connected to a monitor to check for signs that she might experience a placental abruption until five days into her stay.

There is no mention in the document that the expectant mother had pain in the back or abdomen or that she had vaginal bleeding - indications consistent with a placental abruption. Still not all women who experience a placental abruption have these signs. An ultrasound, though, may help detect a placental abruption in which the blood is hidden and so the woman does not have vaginal bleeding. And even after the fetal distress got to an alarming stage it was still an additional hour before the physician did a C-section.

In litigating the case the law firm helping the family no doubt would, with the help of medical experts, have pointed to the facts of the lawsuits as showing

that even though the woman's extreme hypertension put her at risk of a placental abruption and so the standard of care required that she be carefully monitored for that possibility; that there were indications that the baby was in fetal distress, and that this situation was permitted to deteriorate significantly without appropriate action, and that these delays forced the baby to go for a prolonged amount of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, leading to brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and the eventual death of the baby from complications due to cerebral palsy.

Although settlements in these types of cases are oftentimes reached without any admission of liability on the part of the medical staff or hospital it is not surprising that they settled the matter in the amount of $1,500,000.