subject: Administering Antibiotics To Avoid Group B Strep Infections in New Born Children And Avoid A Malpractice Lawsuit [print this page] Administering Antibiotics To Avoid Group B Strep Infections in New Born Children And Avoid A Malpractice Lawsuit
A pregnant woman who is a carrier of the group b streptococcus might transfer the bacteria to her baby during labor even if the mother is asymptomatic. Research have shown that from fifteen to forty percent of expecting mothers are colonized with Group b strep. If there is no intervention, a baby born to a woman who with GBS has a 1 in 200 possibility of developing a Group B Strep infection. By giving the mother appropriate antibiotics as she starts labor the likelihood of the mother passing the Group b strep bacteria to her newborn is decreased by 2,000%.
To help determine which expecting mothers require antibiotics during labor, asymptomatic pregnant women are screened for group b streptococcus between the 35th and 37th week of the pregnancy. Getting tested for Group B Strep is a simple procedure. Because the bacteria ordinarily takes hold inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the expecting mother, a swab is used to get a sample. The results of the screen are generally ready in forty-eight hours.
When a newborn acquires a group b strep infection and is not treated right away, the infection could develop into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Given that a newborn's immune systems is not wholly 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 roughly seventy-six hundred babies each year who become infected with GBS ten to fifteen percent do not survive.
Given the considerable danger a group b strep infection poses for newborns, physicians examining an infant who has symptoms consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy ought to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. Consider, for instance, a reported claim in which an infant, born to a woman who had tested positive for the bacteria during the pregnancy, started to exhibit indications consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. Unfortunately, the treating physician failed to match the symptoms in the child's postnatal record with the prenatal record which contained information that the GBS bacteria had been detected in the mother during the pregnancy. Consequently, the proper diagnosis was was untimely and antibiotics were not given immediately.
Because of the delay, the baby suffered brain damage. The law firm that helped the family announced that they achieved a settlement for the family for $750,000 with the doctor and $3,125,000 with the hospital.
Babies can develop the group b strep infection even if antibiotics were given to the mother while in labor. A recent study also showed that there are a number of newborns who manifest the infection although the mother tested negative. Physicians thus should consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby displays signs consistent with group b strep . As this claim illustrates The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep may amount to liability for medical malpractice.
