Physician Settles Medical Malpractice Claim With Parents Of Child Who Died During Pregnancy For $650,000

A woman with hypertension goes to get recommendations from her physician when she finds out that she is pregnant. Her physician gives her a referral to an obstetrician who will monitor during her pregnancy. At the beginning of her pregnancy her obstetrician took her off her medication for hypertension as it could have detrimental effects on her child. But a short while later, despite her best efforts, her hypertension returned and the doctor prescribed her one-half of her normal pre-pregnancy dose.

Throughout the pregnancy the woman's problems came in ebbs and flows. At times things seemed to be doing well and on other occasions she would have elevated blood pressure, have headaches, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision.

As she got further into her pregnancy these symptoms seemed to become more frequent and the doctor noted that she began to leak amniotic fluid, which detected from the amount of protein that was present in her urine. Moreover the obstetrician recorded that calcifications were on the placenta, indicating that portions of the placenta were not getting enough oxygen and had died off.

The physician only informs the mother about the leakage but tells her not to worry about it. The mother does not know about the calcifications on her placenta which were caused by a lack of oxygen and that her womb is nutriently deficient, both of which could potentially harm her and her child. The doctor failed to tell her that her child may suffer consequences from the lack of sufficient oxygen or that her child's central nervous system could be harmed by the lack of nutrients in the womb. Furthermore, she does not know that other tests should have been conducted on her unborn child to find out how the baby was developing, but that her doctor decided not to do them. She was only informed that she is suffering from a form of preeclampsia and that she is leaking a little amniotic fluid.

With these ongoing problems, the maternal grandmother accompanies her to the next appointment. The mother tells her obstetrician that since the previous appointment her unborn child has not been moving as much and that she has continued to have headaches and now has some sinus probelms. As her condition is getting worse, her physician tells her that he will set up an appointment the following week to induce labor. Despite the mother and maternal grandmother's concerns, the doctor informs them not to worry and that the child is better off where she is now.

As the expectant mother arrived for her appointment the following week, she headed in for her pre-labor ultrasound, only to discover that something was wrong. The ultrasound technician did not say anything to her and shortly thereafter the obstetrician's nurse took her into a small room with a sofa. There her physician advised her that her baby did not have a heart beat. She was brought to a hospital and the death was verified. She then had to suffer going through labor, knowing her baby was dead. She and her husband held their dead baby and emotionally planned for her funeral. After this tragedy the parents filed a malpractice lawsuit against the physician, seeking damages relating to the loss of their baby, including emotional distress. With the efforts of the law firm that represented them, the parents were successful in reaching a settlement for $650,000.

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