Common Doctor Mistakes (click)
If You Suspect a Medical Error Causes Your Child’s Birth Injury or Birth Defect – Call Us!
- Birth Defects
- Birth Trauma – Childbirth Defects
- Injury During Birth
- Cerebral Palsy Infant
- Brain Damage – Brain Injury
- Future Disability
Pennsylvania Birth Defects Lawyers
It’s not your fault. You may be confused and wondering if you did anything to cause your baby to suffer. You did not. Many injuries or defects could be caused by health care providers who gave you or your baby inappropriate or poor care and treatment during the pregnancy, during the birthing process or even later. If your child is injured or has birth defects, don’t wait to contact us.
How did your baby get Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy or CP is caused by an injury to the brain before, during, or shortly after birth. In many cases, no one knows for sure what caused the brain injury or what may have been done to prevent the or injury.
The most important thing to remember is that you do not “catch” CP from another person, and you do not develop CP later in life. It is caused by an injury to the brain near the time of birth.
Here are some common doctor mistakes that may have caused your baby to be suffering:
- Your Baby’s Heart Rate – Changing fetal condition during labor, particularly changes in fetal heart rate, to which the doctor or nurse did not properly respond.
- Your Prenatal Health – Changing health conditions during pregnancy, which the doctor or nurse were not properly diagnosing, treating or assessing. For example, change in blood pressure, adverse effects from the use of Prostaglandin or cervical softening agents to help induce labor, excessive or inadequate weight gain, premature contractions, excessive contractions, premature labor, leaking amniotic fluid, and bloody show.
- Your Medical History – Medical staff at the doctor’s office or at the hospital may have failed to obtain your complete medical history, including a history of your family or hereditary conditions, or of your prior pregnancies.
- Diagnostic Testing – Medical staff may have failed to order or properly interpret specific tests during pregnancy (such as a fetal non-stress test (“NST”), a fetal biophysical profile (“BPP”), a fetal ultrasound, or a glucose tolerance test of the mother).
- Cesarean / C-Section delayed – Medical staff may have failed to perform a cesarean section early enough during labor to avoid brain damage to the baby as a result of fetal distress, infection, or trauma.
- Pre-Natal Blood Tests – Medical staff at the doctor’s office or at the hospital may have failed to properly monitor the pregnant mother’s blood pressure or blood sugar levels during the pregnancy, which can result in significant injuries to both mother and baby.
- Improper Delivery – The doctor or hospital may have improperly encouraged or counseled the mother to undergo a vaginal delivery despite the fact she had a cesarean section delivery in an earlier pregnancy.
- Untreated Infection – The doctor or hospital may have failed to diagnose or treat Group B Beta Hemolytic Streptococcus infection in the mother or her baby, which if left untreated can cause significant brain damage to the baby.
- Premature Delivery – The doctor or hospital may have failed to timely diagnose or prevent preterm or premature labor or delivery. This is not always preventable, but the doctors and hospitals can do a great deal to lessen the risk of harm to the baby by dealing with the problem properly. At times, they can prolong the pregnancy so the baby can mature in the uterus rather than suffer from the complications or injuries that are often seen in infants that are delivered prematurely.
- Diagnosis of Size of Baby – The doctor may have failed to properly determine the size of the baby during the pregnancy or may have failed to realize that there were problems in the pregnancy that were affecting the size of the baby (for example, diabetes or high blood pressure in the mother). This can result in complications if the baby is too small (“intrauterine growth restriction”) or if the baby is too big (“macrosomia”). If the baby is too big, during a vaginal delivery the baby could get stuck in the birth canal, which can lead to devastating injuries to the baby (including lack of oxygen to the brain or injuries to the arms or shoulders.
- Vacuum / forceps – The doctor may have improperly used a vacuum extractor or forceps to assist in the delivery of the baby. The vacuum or forceps are applied by the doctor to the baby’s head within the birth canal and the doctor can then pull the baby out as the mother pushes. Improper use of these tools can result in skull fractures, facial scarring, nerve injuries to the baby, bleeding in the baby’s brain and brain damage.
