Stillbirth After Nursing Errors Resulted In Malpractice Cases By Parents Of Baby

Among the greatest tragedies that can be experienced by a parent is the stillbirth a baby. Stillbirths are not always preventable but there are times when an opportunity to save the life of the child is missed because a doctor or nurse does not appreciate the need for an emergency C-section. In this article we briefly examine two cases in which an expectant mother who had already been admitted to the hospital developed a complication which the medical staff did not diagnose and thus did not respond to in time to save the baby.

First, consider the allegations from the following case

A pregnant woman reported to the hospital following a fall. She was almost full-term at the time. As part of the work-up the physician had her undergo an ultrasound. The ultrasound did not show anything out of the ordinary. The hospital did not have the equipment necessary for fetal heart rate monitoring and so had her transferred to another hospital. Once the monitor was connected the tracings showed that the baby was in distress.

Two hours went by and the woman’s obstetrician, who had indicated he would meet her there, had still not arrived. As the baby's heart rate fell to a critically low level the attending nurse notified the on-call obstetrician who did an emergency C-section. While performing the C-section, this obstetrician realized that the woman had experienced a placental abruption which had triggered the fetal distress. The baby suffered from asphyxia. Apgar scores were 0. Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful and the baby could not be revived. The law firm that the legal case documented that the lawsuit was settled in the amount of $500,000.

The allegations in the next case are as follow. After admitting a pregnant woman at the hospital for the labor and delivery of her first child, the nurse in charge of her care failed to conduct any additional tests when readings indicated that the mother had high blood pressure. The nurse did not even do a second blood pressure reading. When the pregnant woman began going through contraction patterns that indicated a complication had developed in the pregnancy the nurse took no action. Actually, the expectant mother had a uterine abruption. The nurse had an opportunity to take any of several measures to protect the baby's health including administering oxygen, upping the rate of the IV, or attempting intra-uterine resuscitative measures but did none of these. As a result the baby was not immediately delivered and as a result went through a prolonged period without necessary oxygen causing the baby's death. The law firm that represented the family the legal case reported the lawsuit was settled in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars on behalf of the family.

As the two cases above demonstrate, the failure to diagnose that symptoms are suspicious for the risk of a problem that can put the wellbeing of an unbo
child at jeopardyand react quickly can end inthe death of the baby. The key to the resulting lawsuits was the existence of indications which, if the attending medical staff had followed the generally accepted standard of care, would have been dealt with quickly, saving the lives of the children. Unfortunately, the sort of medical errors alleged in the 2 matters examined above keep occurring. How many stillbirths might be prevented if the doctors and nurses involved would establish and adhere to strict standards for how to deal withcomplications in a pregnancy?