Pediatrician Settles Lawsuit Alleging She Failed To Detect Baby’s Group B Strep Infection

If an infant with a Group B Strep infection does not receive proper treatment immediately the baby may suffer long term severe disabilities. A Group B Strep infection in a baby can become pneumonia, sepsis, or meningitis. Given a baby’s undeveloped immune system this can lead to such long term disabilities as cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, brain damage, cognitive and motor retardation, or even to death. It is hence crucial that doctors quickly diagnose a newbo
with symptoms of a GBS infection and give the child antibiotics without delay.

Look at a published malpractice claim where antibiotics for GBS were intravenously administered to a pregnant woman during labor. This is standard protocol for women with a history of Group B Strep colonization during the pregnancy, a prior pregnancy, or if screened in the course of weeks 35 through 37 of the current pregnancy. Still, even with this prophylactic use of antibiotics in the course of labor, it is still possible that the newborn will develop Group B Strep. The pregnant woman in this case brought her newbo
to a pediatrician six weeks after the child's birth. The pediatrician found that the baby had a high fever. The physician, however, failed to review the prenatal records even though she had access to them.

Without seeing the prenatal records the physician simply ordered testing so as to establish what was causing the infant's high fever. By not giving antibiotics to the baby without delay antibiotics the doctor allowed crucial time to lapse during which the baby became septic, developed meningitis and experienced strokes. This left the newbo
with mental retardation and an untreatable seizure disorder .

The law firm that helped the mother and her child got the doctor to disclose that she would have administered antibiotics right away if she had recognized that the baby had earlier exposure to the GBS bacteria. The case was reported as settled by the law firm for the amount of $6,150,000.

There is a key point that this claim brings out. If there is a risk that symptoms could be the result of a serious underlying condition, including a Group B Strep infection, that may produce lifelong disabilities for the child if not treated immediately a physician is expected to take them into account as a possibility unless the doctor is able to eliminate them as the cause. If, as in the case reviewed herein, the doctor acts as if it is not even a possibility, especially when there is information in the mother’s prenatal chart to suggest it is, and the baby is severely harmed in the time that passes before treatment is provided, the physician might be liable for malpractice.