Articles Posted in Birth Injury

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In this case, the father of a brain damaged baby filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the attending doctor. In the original trial, the court found the doctor guilty of malpractice and granted a motion to set aside the damage award of $1,500,000, because it was not enough. A new trial was ordered to set damages.

On appeal, the court held there was plenty of evidence to show that the on call attending doctor didn’t properly supervise the treatment offered by his residents during the birth of the baby in this case. They further held his malpractice was substantial and the proximate cause of the baby’s severe brain damage.

In handing down the court’s decision, the Supreme Court Appellate judges also fund that the damages awarded initially deviated substantially from what would be a reasonable damage award, in light of the extent of the baby’s brain damage. However, they also found that setting aside the verdict as a result of juror confusion and ambiguity was not the right thing to do.

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The settlement was a low amount considering the nature of the birth injuries and the fact the child could never be left alone for the rest of its life. The damage award was based on a 47% negligence ratio assessed against the defendant doctor.

The case was appealed on the grounds that the damages were far too low given the egregious nature of the doctor’s actions. The Appellate court agreed that the damages were far too low and directed a new trial to deal with damages only. They had no problem ordering a new trial, as there was ample evidence on record that indicated the residents at the hospital and the on call physician, who subsequently died, were negligent.

The on call physician didn’t supervise any of the treatment provided to the mother in this case and his lack of oversight resulted in severe brain damage to the baby. In other words, there was a direct link between the doctor’s negligence and the baby’s brain damage – referred to as proximate cause.

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Mistakes made by medical doctors and staff, left a newborn seriously injured. A Lawyer reports that the child has now been awarded £4.6 million. The compensation will go a long way towards helping his family pay for his continued care.

In June 2004, the boy was born at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn. The boy suffered injuries that were severe when, during the delivery, medical personnel misinterpreted his mother’s heartbeat as his. This misinterpretation led to the staff not realizing that he had an abnormal heartbeat. Had the staff been more diligent and questioning, they would have noticed and been able to avoid the birth injury. Their misunderstanding led to a catastrophic delay in the boy’s delivery which resulted in the fetus’s heart beat stopping. Serious brain injury occurred because of the ensuing oxygen starvation to the brain.

The family’s legal counsel genuinely argued that had his birth been just ten minutes sooner, his client would have escaped injury completely, and the sole responsibility for that should reside on the medical doctor and staff present. The boy will have to suffer with cerebral palsy and learning difficulties for the rest of his life. He will also be wheelchair dependent forever.

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When their baby was born with spina bifida, aka a congenital neural tube defect, the parents filed a medical malpractice and wrongful birth lawsuit stating that they had not been told about the purpose of a blood test, referred to as the Triple Marker Test or Alphafetoprotein test, offered to them during the pregnancy, which was to determine if the baby had spina bifida. As a consequence of not being told, the mother did not have the blood test said the Lawyer.

The parents felt that by not being told about the reason for the blood test that they were denied the chance to make an informed decision about continuing the pregnancy or not. When their child was born with a defect, both were devastated and filed for economic and non-economic losses, along with a claim for wrongful life. This motion to hear the claim for wrongful life was precluded and only the parent’s claims were heard.

The jury trial found in favor of the plaintiff parents and awarded past and future economic damages totaling $5 million. Another $5 million was handed down in non-economic damages to the mother and a further $2 million to the father, reported the source.

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This lawsuit was brought by a couple whose baby had been born with spina bidifa. There suit alleged that the doctors involved the pre-natal care did not tell the mother what the reason was for a blood test offered to her during her pregnancy. She had no idea the test was to determine the risk of her unborn baby having spina bifida.

When this case went to court, the judge indicated that there was plenty of evident the father suffered from emotional distress and that both the parents were entitled to damages for this as well, said the doctor. Further, the court said that if the mother had known about the results of the test prior to birth, her decision would not have been speculation.

A video of the baby at birth shown during the trial was quite telling and spoke for itself about the consequences of the mother not knowing about her child’s disease. In other words, there was no prejudice and the video dealt in facts alone. Based on what the jury saw, the court did not feel that the $5 million award was out of line for economic damages and that the $7 million for non-economic damages was fair.

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A medical malpractice suit involving the birth of a child has recently ended with a $7 million settlement. The Judge has recently approved the settlement described a Lawyer. The child who is the subject of the case has a very rare genetic defect.

The lawsuit was filed in 2008 against a genetic counselor, nurse, and two doctors who were from China. It is alleged by the patient that the correct medical counseling was not available before the woman gave birth. The woman successfully gave birth to a baby girl which had cat cry syndrome.

The girl is now three years old but is still affected by her condition. She has mental and physical disabilities as a result of this. The parents argue that if the abnormalities were detected earlier then it would have been easier for the patient to decide whether or not to go ahead with the pregnancy. A procedure known as amniocentesis is fairly routine and this would have been able to detect the problem.

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The case of a little boy who was born with brain damage as a result of medical negligence has just been settled for $8.5 million. The boy who is five years old still requires ongoing regular medical treatment due to his injuries. The settlement is supposed to cover medical costs as well as any future medical requirements that he will continue to need for the rest of his life.

There was no reason to be concerned about the pregnancy. It was thought to be a normal pregnancy and no extra precautions were taken. Standard preparations were made at the medical center explains the expert. However, at around 9 AM heart monitors around the mothers belly detected a very sharp decrease in the heart rate. Prior to this the heart rate was a very healthy 140 beats per minute. However, this suddenly dropped to just 60 beats per minute.

The nurse who noticed this continued to take more readings, stated the rep. However, she did not raise the alarm for about 30 minutes and instead chose to monitor the condition. After 30 minutes she finally did contact the on call obstetrician. It took around 20 minutes for him to arrive.

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A mother of a young girl who suffers from many medical conditions, including Cerebral Palsy, asthma and epilepsy is looking for possible treatment options. The girl who is 9 suffers from seizures and many other medical complications.

The medical disorders are affecting the girl because of medical malpractice when she was born. This was caused because the baby was in an awkward position when she was being born. It was argued that this could have been prevented fairly easily if a C-section was done quickly. Instead the baby was born two weeks late.

The family hired a Lawyer and successfully managed to sue the hospital and the emergency room doctor. The family received a settlement of $1 million dollars. The money left over after paying court costs was put into a trust fund to provide for the child’s future healthcare bills.

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When it’s time to give birth, the parents are excited and anxious for everything to go well. When they don’t and their child suffers permanent disabilities because of a hypoxic brain injury, a lawsuit usually follows.

In this case, the parents filed a med mal lawsuit against the hospital and the doctor who delivered their baby girl. The claim states that the doctor ruptured membranes in her head and didn’t use the proper resuscitation techniques and then compounded the whole mess by failing to perform a C-section immediately, reported the doctor. As a result of this gruesome series of errors, the baby did not get enough oxygen to her brain and was born with cerebral palsy, unable to hear properly and with learning disabilities.

The parents filed a claim asking the court for compensatory damages for their baby’s suffering, pain, disability, disfigurement and her inability to ever be able to enjoy a normal life, explained the source.

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Birth injuries may happen either before, during or just after birth and typically tend to involve oxygen deprivation to the child’s brain. These kinds of birth injuries are usually referred to as hypoxic brain injuries and in most cases, the child’s life will never be normal. Depending on how severe the birth injury is, the child may require medical care for the rest of their lives and never know what living a normal life means, explained the spokesperson.

The parents in this case were expecting a normal delivery and weren’t anticipating any difficulties with their baby. They trusted their doctor to do the right thing. Unfortunately, while the doctor was trying to do the right thing, he made three egregious errors that forever changed the baby’s life. He burst the membranes in her head, didn’t resuscitate her properly and didn’t immediately order a C-section. This resulted in medical malpractice.

As a direct result of this doctor’s errors, the baby sustained a hypoxic brain injury and for the rest of her life she and her parents will deal with her inability to hear properly, her learning disabilities and her cerebral palsy, indicated the report. Hospitals and doctors in Nassau and Suffolk Counties have had to learn to deal with these situations.

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