According to legal news, the parents of a child with cerebral palsy have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against several different parties, including the physicians who assisted during the delivery, the hospital and several other healthcare providers. The birth injury complaint asserts that several different physicians at various different facilities failed in their standard of care, ultimately resulting in hypoxia (oxygen deprivation).
For example after learning she was pregnant, the mother began receiving prenatal care. However, the physician never indicated that the mother had a high-risk pregnancy or was developing atypically. Where obstetricians or other health care professionals fail to meet the "standard of care" in providing competent prenatal counseling, they may be held liable for "prenatal negligence."
Additionally, once the mother presented for delivery, the doctors artificially ruptured her membranes and was noted at multiple points during labor to be in tachystole (having excessively frequent uterine contractions). Despite the frequent contractions, hospital staff gave her Pitocin. Subsequently she started to experience declerations and monitors revealed evidence of fetal distress, requiring a emergency C-section. However, the doctors failed to perform the procedure and the mother gave birth to her son vaginally.
As the result of the numerous complications during labor and delivery, the child suffered brain damage the lawsuit asserts.
The case is now pending.
For more information, or if you believe that you or someone you love has suffered a birth injury as the result of medical malpractice, please contact the dedicated California birth injury lawyers at Bostwick & Peterson for an immediate consultation.