Family Settles Medical Malpractice Claim For Their Child's Brian Injury For $3.875 Million

A mother who is a carrier of the group b strep may transmit the bacteria to her baby during labor whether or not the mother is asymptomatic

. Research have shown that from fifteen to forty percent of pregnant women are carriers of group b strep. If there is no treatment, a child born to a woman who with GBS has a one in two-hundred chance of developing a Group B Strep infection. By administering the proper antibiotics when she enters labor labor the chance of the mother passing the bacteria to her baby is decreased by 2,000%.

To help determine which women require antibiotics in the course of labor, pregnant women without any symptoms are screened for group b strep approximately from the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Undergoing testing for Group B Strep is a simple procedure. Since the bacteria usually colonizes inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the pregnant woman, a swab is used to get a sample. The outcome of the screen are typically available in 48 hours.

If a newborn acquires a GBS infection but is not treated immediately, the infection can turn into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that a newborn's immune systems is not fully developed, the infant may be left with permanent physical and neurological injuries that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately 7,600 children each year who become infected with gorup b strep there is a mortality rate of 10-15%.

Given the significant threat a group b streptococcus infection poses for newborns, doctors treating a baby who has signs consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy should include it in their differential diagnosis. See, for example, a reported claim in which a child, born to a woman who had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy, began to show signs consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. Unfortunately, the pediatrician failed to correlate the symptoms in the babys postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which contained information that the GBS bacteria had been detected in the mother during the pregnancy. Consequently, the correct diagnosis was postponed and antibiotics were not administered right away.

As a result of the delay, the newborn suffered brain damage. The law firm that represented the family reported that the case settled for $3,875,000

Newborns can acquire a Group B Strep infection even if antibiotics were given to the mother while in labor. Research conducted recently also showed that a certain number of infants who develop the infection although the mother tested negative. Doctors thus ought to consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby exhibits symptoms consistent with group b strep . As this case illustrates The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep may amount to liability for medical malpractice.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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