1,500,000 Settlement For Not Adequately Monitoring High Risk Pregnancy

There are certain factors that can turn an otherwise normal pregnancy into a high risk one. One such factor, high blood pressure, placed an expectant mother at risk of a placental abruption. This is a situation wherein the placenta detaches from the uterus prematurely. If this takes place the blood vessels in the area are torn triggering bleeding that can restric the unborn baby’s oxygen supply. Unless a physician takes steps immediately – possibly with a C-section – the unborn child may suffer brain damage or even die.

Look at a lawsuit concerning a pregnant woman was admitted to the hospital at 35 weeks into the pregnancy for extreme hypertension which was brought on by the pregnancy. It took 5 days after her admission before anyone ordered that she be connected to a fetal heart rate monitor machine. The monitoring was ordered only after the mother’s condition worsened. Even though the output of the monitor disclosed 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 at last diagnosed. Even after that it sill took an additional hour before the doctor did a C-section. As a result of the holdup the baby sustained a kind of brain damage referred to as acute hypoxic-ischemia which is due to a loss of oxygen.

The child developed cerebral palsy and passed away at the age of two and a half. The law firm that represented the child’s family documented that it was able to achieve a settlement for one and a half million dollars.

This case serves as an example to medical professionals. Because significant high blood pressure can lead to various dangerous problems in pregnancy including placental abruptions it may be malpractice to fail to identify one when it has occurred and act immediately to safeguard 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. The pregnant woman is experiencing extreme high blood pressure which is a know risk factor for a placental abruption. However, none of the doctors or nurses at the hospital ordered monitoring her for signs that she might experience a placental abruption until 5 days into her stay.

There is no citation in the report that the expectant mother had pain in the back or abdomen or that she was experiencing vaginal bleeding – symptoms correlated with a placental abruption. But not all women who experience a placental abruption have these indications. An ultrasound, however, may be able to identify a placental abruption even when the blood is hidden and so the woman does not have vaginal bleeding. And even after the fetal distress reached dangerous levels it was still an additional hour before the doctor did a C-section.

In pursuing the lawsuit the law firm representing the parents most likely used medical experts to establish

(1) that the woman’s serious hypertension placed her at risk of a placental abruption and thus required that she be closely followed for that possibility,

(2) that there were indications that the baby was in fetal distress and that this condition was permitted to worsen significantly without proper action,

(3) that there was yet another delay even as the fetal distress got to a severe level of an additional hour before a C-section was performed,

(4) that these delays forced the unborn child to experience a prolonged amount of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, and

(5) that this resulted in brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and ultimately the death of the baby from complications due to cerebral palsy.

and that these delays caused the unborn child to go for a prolonged stretch of time without a sufficient oxygen supply, resulting in brain damage, the development of cerebral palsy, and ultimately the death of the baby from complications caused by the cerebral palsy.

Despite the fact that settlements in these kind of cases are oftentimes agreed to without any admission of negligence on the part of the defendants it is not surprising that they agreed to a settlement in the amount of $ 1,500,000.