Family Recovers $3,875,000 From Malpractice Lawsuit For Baby's Brian Damage

A mother who is a carrier of the group b strep can pass on the bacteria to her child during labor even when the mother does not present any symptoms

. Studies demonstrate that from approximately 25% of expecting mothers are carriers but do not necessary have any symptoms. Without intervention, a baby born to a woman who is a carrier of the bacteria has a one in two-hundred chance of developing the infection. By administering the right antibiotics in the course of labor the likelihood of the mother passing the bacteria to her baby is decreased by 2,000%.

To be able to determine which pregnant women should be administered antibiotics while in labor, asymptomatic pregnant women are tested for the bacteria between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Undergoing testing is a straightforward procedure. Because the bacteria normally lives inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the pregnant woman, a swab is used to acquire a sample. The results of the test are usually ready inside forty-eight hours.

In the event that a baby acquires THE infection but is not treated immediately, the infection might turn into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that a newborn's immune systems is not wholly developed, the newborn might be left with lifelong physical and neurological damage that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately seven thousand six hundred babies who are estimated to be infected this year it, ten to fifteen percent do not survive.

With the serious danger a gbs infection presents for babies, physicians treating a baby who has symptoms consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy need to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. Consider, for example, a sent to claim in which a baby, born to a woman who had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy, began to exhibit symptoms consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. However, the pediatrician failed to match the symptoms in the infant's postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which recorded that mother had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy. Thus, the diagnosis was came late and antibiotics were not used immediately.

Given the delay, the newborn sustained brain damage. The law firm that represented the family reported that they achieved a settlement on behalf of the family for $750,000 with the physician and $3,125,000 with the hospital.

Newborns can develop the infection even if antibiotics were administered to the mother while in labor. A recent study also revealed that a certain number of newborns who manifest the infection regardless of whether the mother tested negative. Doctors thus ought to consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby displays signs consistent with GBS . As this matter shows The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep may constitute liability for medical malpractice.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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