Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a birth injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.
(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)
At 7:23 a.m., another nurse assumed care, and she was concerned about the FMS, but did not do anything because the first nurse told her that the perinatologist had seen the patient and was not concerned about the FMS. At 8:00 a.m., the charge nurse looked at the FMS on the monitor in the nurse’s station, and she called the perinatologist, who then responded to the patient’s room at 8:06 a.m. Upon his review of the FMS, he called for a C-section ASAP. However, the in-house anesthesiologist had just started another C-section at 8:00 a.m. and was unavailable. The second-call anesthesiologist was then called at home, and he arrived at 8:34 a.m. The patient was then moved into the OR, but the heart rate was noted to be in the 140s, and so the epidural was re-bolused, with delivery of the minor plaintiff at 9:01 a.m. The Apgar scores were 1,3,4, with evidence of perinatal depression, but the cord blood gas showed a pH of 7.2. The baby’s weight was 2,365 gm, which was SGA (small for gestational age). The minor plaintiff was subsequently diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and “total body” cerebral palsy. The baby was discharged home on March 15, 2006 and has had five subsequent hospitalizations for fever.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.
Plaintiff alleged that defendant registry nurse failed to notify the perinatologist when she turned off the Pitocin, despite continued late decelerations between 5:15 a.m. and 7:13 a.m. Plaintiff further alleged that defendant hospital charge nurse failed to intervene or be aware of FMS abnormalities between 5:15 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. At change of shift at 7:00 a.m., both hospital nurse and charge nurse failed to notify the perinatologist about FMS abnormalities, including continued late decelerations.
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.