Labor and Delivery Negligence

Published on: July 29, 2011

$21 Million Birth Injury Lawsuit Award

by Stephen Bilkis

The Pennsylvania medical center that allegedly caused a severe birth injury to a little boy has been forced to pay a $21 million compensation package to the boy and his mother. The boy developed cerebral palsy as a direct result of the doctor’s mismanagement of his birthing process.

As a lifelong condition, the lawsuit money will provide for quality care throughout the boy’s life. In Manhattan and Nassau County, hospitals and doctors must have insurance for these kinds of tragedies.

In the lawsuit, the boy’s mother alleged that the Erie, Pennsylvania, Hamot Medical Center’s doctors acted improperly during the birth of her son in November of 2006. While in the hospital and ready to give birth, the mother and son’s vital signs were not properly monitored by the nursing staff on hand. According to a New York Birth Injury Attorney, the boy then suffered lack of oxygen and shifted into the breach position. The new position of the fetus forced the doctor and midwife to perform an emergency C-section.

Published on: July 26, 2011

Cesarean Sections Used to Avoid Birth Injuries – Part 2

by Stephen Bilkis

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about one-third of U.S. women giving birth in 2008 delivered via a cesarean section. That number crossed all races and ages.

Cesareans are becoming more popular as mothers today are less likely to have a negative preconception about surgical delivery. The number is also rising as doctors are quicker to okay cesarean sections in order to avoid birth injury law suits, a New York Birth Injury Lawyer reveals.

The National Institutes of Health said just last year that it is safe for women to have a vaginal birth after C-section, known as VBAC, but some hospitals still do not regularly perform them. Classes on VBAC are offered at many hospitals across the country. It is available, but many who had a positive experience with the surgery the first time are likely to want it done on each subsequent surgery.

Published on: July 11, 2011

Birth Injury Caused by Medical Negligence in Illinois

by Stephen Bilkis

A birth injury claim recently filed by a mother in Illinois concluded in a $9,500,000 personal injury settlement. She was represented by a local firm.

In November of 2006, an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, approved the $9.5M settlement of a medical negligence case. The plaintiff alleged that medical negligence on the part of the attending doctor, nursing staff, and the hospital at large, were to blame for a birth injury sustained during labor and delivery.

A New York Birth Injury Lawyer read the court documents and said that during the personal injury investigation, the plaintiff went to her normal clinic for a prenatal checkup. She was admitted to the hospital where medical personnel attached a fetal monitor to her and began inducing her labor using the medication Pitocin. These procedures took place because it was found that she was eclamptic.

Published on: July 8, 2011

Preventable Birth Injuries

by Stephen Bilkis

Unfortunately infants sustain birth injuries at an all too normal pace. Even more unfortunate is that a lot of such injuries are caused by the negligence of medical personnel.

A mother in labor has certain responsibilities, but so too does the medical team attending her child’s birth. For the mother, she is entrusting her health and the life of her child to her medical doctor and his or her staff.

There are injuries that are not preventable. No matter what safety procedures and perfect protocols are in place, sometimes an injury occurs. This is certainly explainable and even expected when one stops to ponder just what is happening at child birth.

Published on: June 12, 2011

Newborns Exposed to Too Much X-Ray Radiation

by Stephen Bilkis

Birth injuries are often caused by doctor errors during the birthing process, but some parents in New York should make sure their newborn is not being put in danger by testing performed immediately after the birth. It’s possible that an excessive amount of testing is dangerous to babies.

A New York Birth Injury Lawyer can help you decide if you should bring a medical negligence lawsuit against the medical facility you gave birth in.

An example of excessive testing by doctors was recently detailed in the New York Times. The story uncovered data that pointed toward an excessive amount of potentially unnecessary X-rays being done on newborn babies. The babies were up to 26 weeks premature, and the excessive testing was allegedly done at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Published on: June 11, 2011

Large Babies at Risk for Birth Injury

by Stephen Bilkis

Every year thousands of babies are injured or killed from a specific birth complication called shoulder dystocia. A NYC Birth Injury Lawyer wants to know why more doctors and midwives aren’t informing their patients about who is at risk. The Director of Medical Education and Perinatal Outreach at Allegheny General Hospital said a shoulder dystocia birth is when the baby’s shoulders get stuck in the mother’s pelvic opening.

A prominent gynecologist from Allentown in Lehigh County has studied shoulder dystocia and believes these upsetting and avoidable complications are becoming more common. He attributes this phenomenon partly to women who are delivering larger babies, and partly to insurance companies who are trying to reduce the rate of more expensive Caesarean births.

This particular complication cannot be diagnosed until just prior to a baby’s birth. In most cases, even, a labor has progressed normally up until the baby’s head appears. When the head then retracts between contractions and maternal pushes, the birth becomes an emergency. The newborn’s life is in danger, and there are only five to six minutes to get the baby out. Nassau and New York City Hospitals are forced to deal with these problems on many situations.

Published on: June 8, 2011

National Hospital Set to Pay €4.5M in Birth Injury Settlement

by Stephen Bilkis

A 55-day case, following the longest running birth injury action in the country and described as the most complex medical negligence case ever to come before the Irish courts was finally settled.

The National Maternity Hospital has to pay €4.5m to a six-year-old boy who was severely disabled because of an injury he sustained at birth.

The hospital also has to pay the legal fees of the patient and his parents which have been estimated at around €4m.

Published on: June 7, 2011

Pregnant Patients Did Not Consent to Drug Trials

by Stephen Bilkis

Wagga Wagga Base Hospital doctors may not have obtained the official informed consent of all the mothers it tested a drug on. The doctors alleged went ahead without informing the watchdog company, Therapeutic Goods Administration.

A Birth Injury Lawyer based in Manhattan, NY, revealed that hundreds of women were given the stomach ulcer drug misoprostol to induce labor at full term, despite warnings by the drug’s manufacturer as early as 2000.

Recently, the family of a six-year-old boy born with cerebral palsy successfully sued the hospital, which has admitted negligence in the drug trial.

Published on: June 3, 2011

Woman seeks $2.5 million for the loss of her unborn child, said a New York Birth Injury Lawyer.

by Stephen Bilkis

A distraught woman, who recently lost a child, claims it was her doctor’s negligence that lead to the infant’s untimely death, said a NY Birth Injury Lawyer.

The woman, who is seeking $2.5 million from her doctor, reportedly had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes early on in her pregnancy and was also considered high risk because she was 41 years old.

“The plaintiff had or developed known risk factors associated with her pregnancy including, but not limited to, being 41 years of age at the time of conception and gestational diabetes,” a NY City Birth Injury Lawyer explained.