For nine months, expectant parents carefully plan for their child to come home. They dream about who their baby will grow up to be, what his or her name will be and can almost picture them coming home as they carefully plan the nursery. Unfortunately, these dreams can become shattered for some when they experience a traumatic birth, resulting in their baby being severely injured or even dying. If you or your baby were the victim of a mistake at the hands of your doctor, contacting a medical malpractice attorney will be a way to ensure that your claim is handled thoughtfully and correctly.
Medical Malpractice
In some situations, medical personnel such as doctors, anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses make mistakes. When their treatment of the patient was due to negligence on their part, it is likely that medical malpractice is at play. A doctor is considered negligent when their incompetence or lack of skill resulted in the patient’s harm. In order for a patient to prove that medical professionals were negligent they must prove 4 key components:
- Duty of care meaning that there is an established doctor-patient relationship.
- The doctor violated the standard of care, in that the patient did not receive adequate care.
- The patient received an injury or suffered as a result
- The injury was due to negligence on the part of the doctor
Common Delivery Room Injuries
It is important to remember that although the doctor’s negligence may have been realized in the delivery room or following the birth of the baby, in some cases the negligence occurred during prenatal care such as failing to diagnose a birth defect. There are a number of oversights a doctor may make in the delivery room including:
- Placental Abruption is when the placenta detaches from the uterine wall.
- Not responding to fetal distress
- Shoulder Dystocia when the baby’s shoulder is not able to pass through or is stuck during delivery.
- Complications from a tangled umbilical cord
- Group B Strep, a bacterial infection carried in the vagina or rectum of the mother that could be passed to the baby if not treated appropriately.
- Stillbirth when a baby dies in utero after 28 weeks of pregnancy.
- Incorrect use of forceps
When parents to be go to the hospital to have their baby, they anticipate a happy occasion with the arrival of their new little bundle of joy. It can be utterly painful to face a lifetime disability in caring for your child or worse, leaving the hospital with empty arms. If you have been the victim of an error during the delivery of your child, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a birth injury lawyer Salt Lake City, UT, trusts for further guidance around managing the legal complexities associated with a medical malpractice suit.
Thanks to our friends and contributors from Rasmussen & Miner for their insight into birth injuries.