A woman who has hypertension seeks guidance from her doctor after she finds out that she is pregnant. Her doctor refers her to an obstetrician who will monitor throughout her pregnancy. At first her obstetrician had her stop taking her hypertension medication because it might be bad for her baby. Still, after a few weeks diet by itself was no longer able to control her hypertension and the obstetrician prescribes that she take half her normal dose from before her pregnancy. Although she is taking medication for her hypertension, the mother starts to get headaches, suffer from nausea, vomiting and blurred vision, which progressively become more common throughout her pregnancy. When she goes into her doctor's office, he notes her elevated blood pressure and gives her a higher dose of medication in an attempt to lower her blood pressure. Despite her meeting with the doctor to resolve these issues, her symptoms get progressively worse and happened more frequently as her pregnancy progresses. In her later visits it is noted that she has started to leak amniotic fluid, which can be very dangerous. After the ultrasound, the doctor informed the woman that the leakage was not significant and she shouldn't worry. He did not tell her that the nutritional levels in her womb had gone down and that it could effect her child. He failed to tell her that her baby was at risk to expeience complications related to fetal hypoxia (lacking an adequate oxygen supply). And, furthermore, the doctor did not conduct any tests on the baby to determine how the child was developing. Following this visit the mother is still suffering from sever headaches, starts to have some sinus problems in her ears and is concerned as she notices her baby is not moving as much. At her next appointment tells her physician, who determines he needs to induce labor the coming week. Although she expresses concern about delaying so long, the physician downplays the mother's concerns and sets up an appointment for her for the following week. The next week the woman went into her physician's office to have her child. Following the ultrasound, the technician, began to act strangely, handed her the video and immediately left the room. One of the nurses brought her into a different room, not a regular exam room. There her physician informed her that her baby did not have a heart beat. She then goes to a hospital and the death of the child was verified. She then had to endure going through labor, knowing her child was dead. She and her husband held their dead baby and emotionally planned for her funeral. Following this tragedy the parents filed a malpractice claim against the obstetrician, seeking damages fro the death of their baby, including emotional distress. With the efforts of the law firm that helped them, the parents were successful in reaching a settlement for $650,000.
Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit
This article discusses a settlement from a malpractice lawsuit alleging that a doctor did not induce a pregnant woman's labor in time. In this situation, the mother suffered from hypertension during her pregnancy which resulted in numerous problems. Although the doctor realized that he would have to induce labor because of complications, he failed to do so while the unborn child was still alive.
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting birth injury medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about stillbirth and other birth injury matters by visiting the websites
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5 2 out of 5 1 out of 5
