$4,500,000 Settlement In Case Concerning Delay In Delivery After Placental Abruption

It is typical for pregnant women to place themselves and their unborn child in the hands of a physician who will help them through labor and delivery

. It can often take time following the patient's admission to the hospital until the baby is born. During somepart of this time doctors tend to rely on the nurses and staff to keep an eye on the woman's situation and to keep them apprised of any problems that might arise.

The doctor remains accountable for supervising the nurses and staff. Further, the nurses and staff are accountable for having the knowledge, training and experience to identify symptoms of problems and for notifying the doctor when they do come up. Unfortunately, nurses and staff occasionally do not satisfy these standards.

Consider the documented case alleging that an expectant mother at full term commenced going through contractions while at home and when heading to the local hospital she started having unrelenting severe pain. Upon reaching the hospital the woman complained to the nurse that she was experiencing major pain exclaiming that she thought she had a complication to the pregnancy. The expectant mother was taken to the Labor and Delivery unit but the nurse either failed to register or ignored her complaints and did not get in touch with the physician, who had not arrived at the hospital, to inform him.

Instead the nurse acted like this was a normal pregnancy. Critical time passed until she even commenced checking the fetal heart rate. As soon as she at last did figure out that the unborn child was suffering from fetal distress. Now the nurse did advise the obstetrician, who still was not in the hospital, by telephone. A different physician on the unit took over and did an emergency C-section.

The extreme pain had been from a placental abruption. It caused the unborn child to experience a reduced supply of oxygen causing severe brain injury. The child will be permanently disabled and has to have 24/7 care. The law firm that represented the family documented that the case settled for from the hospital for the nursing not realizing that the mother had experienced a placental abruption.

In this lawsuit the patient actually signaled the nurse of her feeling that there was a problem with the pregnancy. At this point in the pregnancy severe continual abdominal pain can be due to an abruption.

It is not known why the nurse failed to put these together. Regardless if she disregarded the patient's complaints, failed to hear them, did not have the necessary knowledge, training or experience to properly understand the situation, or discounted her complaints on the grounds that a placental abruption is regularly (though not always) associated with visible vaginal bleeding, she missed signs of a dangerous problem.

The result, however, was a serious injury to the unborn child resulting in a permanent disability. Because of the damage caused by the nurse's mistake the law firm that handled this matter documented a settlement designed to ensure that the baby has proper care for life.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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