Queens

Published on: December 10, 2011

Hospital Error Leaves Boy and Family with Lifelong Consequences

by Stephen Bilkis

One young boy dreams of kicking a football one day. Had it not been for a hospital blunder, however, at the then North Staffordshire Hospital during his birth in April 1998, his ambitions would have probably been set much higher.

On the day his mother was brought to the hospital, she expected nothing but a straightforward labor and delivery. She had suffered no complications when she gave birth to the boy’s sister. Everyone expected the second birth to be just as smooth, claims a nurse.

However, the hairdresser mother experienced high blood pressure. This is the death knoll on a pregnancy, though; it is a fairly common complication. Many women have high blood pressure and it doesn’t lead to complications. After all, think about what the body is going through during a pregnancy. A heart is pumping blood for two individuals and the lungs are breathing for two and the stomach is eating for two.

Published on: December 4, 2011

Complications can arise when it comes time to deliver the baby

by Stephen Bilkis

Even in perfectly normal pregnancies, complications can arise when it comes time to deliver the baby. The timing of labor is actually very important. If the baby comes too early, it can suffer severe complications and medical issues, but if the pregnancy goes too long, the placenta can stop working properly, leading to birth injuryas well.

A pregnancy is considered full-term at 37 weeks. Any birth that takes place before 37 weeks gestation is considered preterm. Usually a baby born after 35 weeks suffers no medical problems, so labor is not stopped from 35 weeks on.

Sometimes labor begins on its own, either due to a medical problem the mother or baby may have, or for no reason whatsoever. Only about 10% of women deliver on their due date, although 90% of women deliver within 2 weeks of their due date. Early in the pregnancy, an ultrasound is done to try and determine the length of the pregnancy to date. Ultrasounds done in mid-pregnancy, or late pregnancy are less effective at determining the length of the pregnancy.

Published on: November 7, 2011

Birth Injuries in Newborns Common

by Stephen Bilkis

A birth injury is an injury that takes place during the birthing process, and, due to the stress of labor, is not an uncommon complication. Many newborn babies have injuries at birth, although most injuries are mild. Sometimes there are more serious injuries, like damaged nerves or broken bones, but generally the injuries get better without treatment.

A New York Birth Injury Lawyer discussed how a difficult labor and delivery, where the baby is injured, usually takes place when the birth canal that the baby passes through is too small, or the baby is too large (which normally happens with gestational diabetes). If the baby is in an abnormal position, injury is more likely. Overall the amount of birth injuries have went down since previous decades due to improved prenatal testing and the availability of cesarean deliveries.

Head and brain injuries are one of the more common injuries, as the head is the first to emerge in the delivery process. Swelling of the scalp and bruising are common, but not cause for concern. Blood may accumulate below the coverings of the skull bones in a complication called cephalohematoma. These do not need treatment, and dissolve within a few months. A much less common injury is a skull fracture, which also heals without treatment unless it is a depressed fracture.

Published on: November 3, 2011

Studies in the Netherlands Show Decline in Cerebral Palsy in Preterm Infants

by Stephen Bilkis

Some recent studies of the number of cerebral palsy in preemies have presented some good news, sources have told a New York Birth Injury Attorney. One such study that was conducted at the University Medical Center Utrecht, located in the Netherlands, found that of those infants that were treated in their neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) between 1990 and 2005 that the rates of cerebral palsy decreased significantly.

Other such studies have experienced similar findings, such as study in Canada that recorded a decline in cerebral palsy over the past 30 year. Another study at the University of California, San Francisco, also noted that cases of cystic periventricular leukomalacia began to decrease after the 1990s.

Although there are some studies that do not show a decline, many researchers think that those studies include extreme preemies that are born in the 23rd or 24th weeks of pregnancy, while the current studies include only those infants who are born from week 25 or later.

Published on: October 24, 2011

Is Storing Cord Blood a Good Idea?

by Stephen Bilkis

Having a baby can be one of a family’s most joyous occasions, and with more than 4 million babies born each year there are many happy people with healthy new additions to their families. However, the New York Birth Injury Attorney claims, there are also other babies that are born with a variety of health problems, including those deemed as being debilitating like Erbs Palsy. While any child that is born with medical problems is both sad and tragic, many parents have been utilizing a method known as cord blood storage as a means of providing for their children should a condition or illness manifest itself as they grow and develop.

An questioner was told that cord blood contains stem cells and other genetic information about the baby. The method of delivery of the baby is irrelevant as the cord blood can be harvested whether the baby is born vaginally or by C-section. The cord blood is collected before the umbilical cord is cut and is then sent to either a private or public storage facility to which the parents will pay a monthly fee to store their child’s cord blood for future use, if needed. The one distinction between the public and private storage is that the parents’ monthly fee assures that their child’s blood will be available to them if needed, and a public storage is more like a cord blood bank where the cord blood is made available to anyone who needs it. Either storage method would only be good until the child reaches about 18-years of age since it is at that point that there would be insufficient stem cells within the cord blood to treat the person.

While storing cord blood may be considered by many to be a controversial approach to a potential medical problem that may never materialize, there are many who store the cord blood in case their child develops a blood type disease such as leukemia. To a parent who has a child who has been diagnosed with such a disease, cord blood storage could be considered a godsend.

Published on: October 10, 2011

Disabled Redditch Student Sues Health Authority

by Stephen Bilkis

A New York Birth Injury Attorney was informed that the mother of a Redditch, England, student has filed a lawsuit on his behalf. She is seeking compensation for up to £300,000, or $ 487,350.25 USD for injuries that she says her son received at childbirth.

The suit alleges that doctors made the decision to do a C-section too late, and after her son’s head had already entered into the birthing canal. Due to this action, doctors had difficulty in removing the boy’s head, as it was lying too low in his mother’s abdomen at the time of C-section. In which case he was only minutes away from being delivered naturally. Her lawyers are also presenting that the amount of force that was necessary to remove his head from his mother’s abdomen, caused his soft skull to deform, which led to bleeding in his brain.

According to court papers, when doctors were able to dislodge the infant’s head from his mother’s body, he had an extremely swollen head, and appeared to be both shocked and battered. The now 28-year old man suffers from spastic tetraplegic cerebral palsy with epilepsy. He is not able to walk, and he does not have much use of his legs. The Birth Injury Lawyer of NYC discovered that the man does not understand the consequences of his actions, his vision, and memory are poor, and he does not understand money.

Published on: September 7, 2011

You can take steps against Vertebral Subluxation Complex by checking your child for signs and symptoms at home.

by Stephen Bilkis

According to a New York Birth Injury Lawyeryou can take steps against Vertebral Subluxation Complex by checking your child for signs and symptoms at home. To do so all you will need is a mirror – preferable a full-length mirror – and your child. First, have your child stand with their back to you facing the mirror. Make sure that they are standing as straight as possible. Next check out the general spine alignment – you will want to see if it is straight, or if it seems to be curving right or left. Next, as a NY Birth Injury Lawyer has mentioned, observe the head placement to see if it seems to be tilted or rotated. You will then want to look at the hips and shoulders to see if they seem to be out of alignment. If one side seems to be higher that the other, chances are that they are not level. By gently rubbing the muscles on either side of the spine, you should be able to tell if they feel tight or ropey in nature. Finally, press on the knobs of the spine to see if your child feels tenderness or pain. If any of these things appear to cause pain or appear to impede the natural structure of the spine and body, you may want to talk to a doctor, as your child may be suffering from Vertebral Subluxation Complex. This is usually not a fatal birth injury bust doctors in The Bronx and Queens are looking for ways to discover the problem before it gets to serious.

In situations where birth trauma may have caused Vertebral Subluxation Complex to appear in your child, a New York Criminal Attorney can assist throughout the process of seeking reconciliation and treatment. If you need an advocate to work with you to make sure you are receiving the best care and treatment available, a New York Criminal Attorney is there for you.

The Office of Stephen Bilkis and Associates can offer you support and guidance as well as a free consultation when you contact us at 1-800-NY-NY-LAW. We have offices in N York City, including Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx and in Nassau County, Suffolk County and Westchester County.

Published on: August 25, 2011

Birth trauma can happen to anyone

by Stephen Bilkis

Birth trauma can happen to anyone, and can be the result of either natural or unnatural causes, reports a NY Birth Injury Attorney. Since the delicate and still-developing spinal cord and nervous system of an infant are so fragile, it does not take much in the way of trauma or rough handling to cause spinal misalignment or even its more debilitating counterpart, “Vertebral Subluxation Complex,” or VSC. A jarring accident, as well as the use of forceful birth alternatives such as vacuum extraction and even Cesarean Sections, can cause this trauma – a fact that is often brought to light by New York Birth Injury Lawyers. Dr. Jeanne Ohm – a Pediatric Chiropractor and a member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association – noted that even something such as simple as routine labor and delivery procedures can cause spinal injury liked misalignment and damage. This includes labor-inducing procedures, the use of pain medication, and restrictions on labor positions due to the mother’s health requirements. In addition to causing nerve damage, Vertebral Subluxation Complex can also cause organ malfunction, muscle damage, and tissue damage – all of which can be devastating medical issues to an infant’s development. These compounded issues can create the need for continued care and rehabilitation for the child, even in the least damaging of situations. Hospitals in Queens and The Bronx are on the look out for any of these possibilities.
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Published on: August 6, 2011

Expert Warns that 50% of SBS Parents Wrongly Convicted – Part 3

by Stephen Bilkis

Legal cases involving infant death are always tragic; it’s necessary that the legal system properly defend them. But it is appalling if the court system be allowed to use outdated information to wrongly accuse already suffering parents. So argues Dr. Squier who is advocating for a new examination of the symptoms of SBS (Shaken Baby Syndrome).

“In the past four years there have been several discoveries about the dura, the membrane covering the brain. It was thought that it was there to protect the brain from shock, but we now know it also has the very important function of controlling blood flow out of the brain. At birth the dura has huge blood channels that can leak – and not always as a result of trauma. They do, however, disappear during the child’s second year of life. These findings are so significant that I now believe that half or even more of those who have been brought to trial in the past for SBS have been wrongly convicted. ‘I am also convinced we can virtually exclude shaking as a cause of death in babies unless, as well as bleeding in the brain, we have additional evidence of trauma, such as serious damage to the neck. When a baby is shaken, the head will flop back and forth and the neck becomes the weak point. In other words, if you shake a baby so hard that it dies, it is the neck that is going to show the damage, not the brain.” Hospitals in New York City and Queens must be aware of these situations.

The doctor’s view is gathering worldwide momentum but is also garnering toxic feedback. She says that pathologists want to remain in the comfortable and unchallenging zone of an outdated theory. She says judges don’t appreciate new science that could make convictions more complex, and police forces don’t want to change the current makeup for fear of not getting the convictions they want.

Published on: July 23, 2011

£4.6m Compensation in Birth Injury Case

by Stephen Bilkis

A young boy was left severely brain-damaged at birth when midwives allegedly mistook his mother’s heartbeat for her baby’s. He was recently awarded £4.6 million in compensation.

The boy’s heart had stopped beating during his mother’s labor at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in 2004. The High Court in London heard evidence of “wholly avoidable delays.”

The now six-year-old faces a lifetime of disability; the settlement will pay for the 24-hour care he will need for the rest of his life.