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Birth
and Brain Injuries:
Malpractice Issues
Medical
Malpractice is a frequent cause of traumatic injuries
during birth. At Rosenbaum & Associates our team
of lawyers and expert medical consultants pride themselves
on helping families uncover whether medical errors were
responsible for these devastating injuries. We are experienced
in handling and understanding these complex medical
issues.
Common
Delivery Errors include:
-Failure to monitor fetal strips
-Misread fetal strips
-Improper use of forceps or vacuum
-Failure to perform caesarean section
Was
there malpractice?
Certainly there are instance where child's condition
is the result of genetics, such as a chromosomal disorder,
however far to often these life altering conditions
are the result of malpractice. For example, significant
injuries can occur when the doctor or nurse fails to
read (or inaccurately reads) the fetal monitory strips.
If the strips indicate fetal distress then the doctor
must act immediately, otherwise the fetus could be deprived
of its vital oxygen supply. As result this delay the
baby can sustain brain damage that could have been avoided.
In other cases, the misuse of forceps or vacuum during
delivery can cause traumatic brain injury. The newbornes
skull is still very soft, there if too much pressure
is applied there can be a direct trauma to the brain.
How
the injury occurs
The brain is the primary center for regulating and coordinating
all body activities. Essential to the regulation and
coordination of these body activities is the transmission
to the brain of oxygen obtained through air inhaled
and exhaled during the act of respiration. Traumatic
birth injuries is a broad description which is used
to describe both avoidable and unavoidable mechanical
and anoxic trauma to the brain of an infant during labor
and delivery.
Anoxic
trauma involves a situation in which there is diminished
oxygen in the arterial blood supply despite the infant's
otherwise-normal ability to carry oxygen. The diminished
oxygen in the blood supply may be due to a reduced oxygen
supply, respiratory obstruction, or inadequate respiratory
movements.
Mechanical
trauma involves some physical act to the body, usually
the skull of the infant, which prevents the needed transmission
of oxygen to the brain of the infant.
If
you would like more information please call us at 1-800-7-LEGAL-7,
or click here for a Free
Case Evaluation.
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