Though expecting parents do not like to hear it, things can go wrong during the birthing process. The good news, though, is that doctors are typically well-trained to handle these situations and to deliver the child without harm to him or her or the mother. However, sometimes errors in judgment occur and completely preventable, senseless harm befalls an innocent baby. When this happens, parents should seek to hold accountable the negligent medical professionals who harmed their child while at the same time seeking to recover damages.
One Oregon couple is doing this after they recently filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against their doctors. According to the lawsuit, the couple went to the hospital when their child was 15 days overdue. Doctors gave the mother medication to induce labor and eventually told her to push. The baby, however, was not properly oriented as its head was not aligned with the cervix. The lawsuit claims this caused distress to the baby, eventually causing the child to inhale his own fecal matter.
Thus, when the child was born via emergency C-section, he had difficulty breathing. It is further alleged a doctor removed the child’s edotrachial tube for a period of 45 minutes while another team of healthcare professionals were on the way. Though the child was eventually able to breathe normally, the extended period where he was deprived of oxygen caused him to suffer serious brain damage. He was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
A serious birth injury like this can leave a child with serious, life-long injuries that require expensive and sometimes painful long-term care. Such a preventable error can leave a child incapable of living the “normal” life his or her parents dreamed for him or her. This can be heartbreaking, but parents should not allow that to paralyze them. Instead, parents of a child injured at birth should take action to recover losses such as medical expenses and pain and suffering while at the same time punishing negligent behavior that should never occur in a healthcare setting.
Source: Statesman Journal, “Lawsuit over birth injury: Misfortune or malpractice?” Saerom Yoo, May 23, 2014