Infant Sustains Permanent Disability When Nurse Didn't Detect Indications Of Placental Abruption

Every day expectant mothers place themselves and their unborn baby in the care of a physician who will get them through labor and delivery

. It may frequently take a fair amount of time after the patient is admitted to the hospital until the newborn is delivered. Throughout somepart of this time physicians often depend on the nurses and staff to keep an eye on the womans progress and to keep them apprised of any complications that may arise.

The physician is stil responsible for supervising the nurses and staff. Further, the nurses and staff are responsible for having the knowledge, training and experience to identify symptoms of issues and for informing the doctor if they do arise. However, nurses and staff sometimes fail to satisfy these requirements.

Consider the reported lawsuit regarding an expectant mother having reached full term started having contractions at at home and while going to the local hospital the woman also started having nonstop intense pain. When she got to at the hospital she informed the nurse that she was in intense pain and that she felt something was wrong. She was taken to the Labor and Delivery unit but the nurse either did not register or disregarded the womans complaints and did not contact the doctor, who had not yet arrived at the hospital, to inform him.

Instead the nurse acted like this was a typical pregnancy. Critical time passed before she even started following the fetal heart rate. As soon as she at last did determine that the unborn child was in fetal distress. Finally the nurse did call the obstetrician, who even now was not in the hospital, by telephone. Another physician on the unit took over and performed an emergency C-section. The extreme pain had been because of a placental abruption. The placental abruption cased the unborn baby to suffer from a lack of oxygen resulting in significant brain injury. The child will be disabled for life and has to have full time attention. The law firm that handled this claim announced that the case settled for from the hospital for the nursing not realizing that the mother had suffered a placental abruption.

In this case the patient in fact alerted the nurse of her perception that there was a problem with the pregnancy. At this stage in the pregnancy extreme persistent abdominal pain can be due to a placental abruption. It is not known why the nurse failed to connect these. Whether she disregarded the woman's complaints, did not hear them, did not have the appropriate knowledge, training or experience to properly interpret the situation, or discounted the patients complaints because a placental abruption is commonly (though not always) coupled with visible vaginal bleeding, she missed indications of a dangerous problem.

The result, unfortunately, was a severe injury to the unborn baby producing a permanent disability. Owing to the harm caused by the nurses mistake the law firm that represented the family reported that it managed to achieve a settlement intented to ensure that the child has suitable care for life.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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