When it comes to preventing birth injuries, it is crucial that your medical team
recognizes when your baby is in distress or when there are risks present during a pregnancy. Another step that is extremely important to prevent birth injuries is quickly performing a cesarean section or C-section delivery when distress or impending distress is evident.
Birth injuries tend to occur when the medical staff is negligent or makes an incorrect decision, especially in situations where complications arise during the labor and delivery process. Birth injuries may cause a child to have brain bleeds and trouble breathing, which may lead to cerebral palsy, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and other debilitating conditions.
Doctors and medical professionals caring for a pregnant mother and her child have the responsibility and duty of care to carefully monitor the child’s heart rate, particularly when the mother is admitted to the labor and delivery unit. Ineptitude, negligence (carelessness) or a breakdown in communication lead to complications that result in serious injuries and lifelong disabilities for the child.
Importance of a Timely C-Section
One of the factors that often causes a baby to be in distress is a lack of oxygen supply to the brain. When such a dangerous situation is allowed to continue, it may lead to permanent and irreversible brain injury. If a child’s distress cannot be quickly remedied, the physician must deliver the baby right away and this is often done with an emergency C-section delivery, a procedure where the baby is surgically removed from the mother’s womb with an incision to the abdomen.
Labor and delivery units must have the ability to perform an emergency C-section at any time. A hospital that does not have the ability to do so is not meeting the standard of care. In some cases, hospital staff members fail to properly monitor the child for signs of distress. In other cases, staff members are slow and careless in getting the mother ready for an emergency C-section. There are also cases where hospitals are understaffed and there is no one to help deliver the distressed baby.
Labor and delivery units must have the capacity to perform a C-section delivery expeditiously, should the need arise. Hospitals that cut corners or take risks by being short-staffed can be held responsible for any birth injuries that occur.
Choosing C-Section Over Vaginal Delivery
One form of negligence (carelessness) that leads to debilitating birth injuries is when physicians continue to attempt vaginal delivery instead of moving on to an emergency C-section delivery. Prolonged labor is often associated with oxygen deprivation in children. When physicians know that there is a risk of complication, they administer Pitocin or Cytotec to speed up the delivery. However, these drugs may cause contractions so quickly that the child is at risk of becoming more oxygen deprived.
Birth-assistive devices such as forceps or vacuum extractors can also be risky and dangerous for children. Instead of moving on to an emergency C-section, physicians force a vaginal delivery by trying to deliver babies with these tools, which when handled by an inexperienced or incompetent doctor can cause brain injuries.
C-sections are common and often predictable as opposed to drugs and birth-assistive tools. Some conditions such as breech presentation — when a baby comes out feet-first as opposed to head-first — require a C-section delivery. When other complications such as placental abruption, uterine rupture or umbilical cord prolapse occur, a C-section may be the safest way to deliver the baby.
When physicians fail to recognize this urgency, the baby may suffer serious birth injuries. The three most common indications for the appropriateness of a C-section delivery are failure of the baby to progress during labor, non-reassuring fetal heart tracings (fetal distress) and abnormal position of the baby, such as face or breech presentation.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
Birth injuries such as cerebral palsy and brachial plexus palsy or Erb’s palsy often occur as a result of negligence (carelessness) during labor and delivery including the failure to move on to an emergency C-section. If your child has suffered birth injuries, he or she may be able to receive compensation that helps pay for medical expenses, lost income, cost of therapy, future treatments, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc.
The 50 years of experience of the New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. One of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
We have seen many cases where New York City Health and Hospital Corporation facilities deliver babies who are born with cerebral palsy or Brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) stemming from negligence (carelessness), and/or medical malpractice in the labor and delivery etc. of the children.
The following list identifies some of these hospitals (operated by New York City Health and Hospital Corporation):
• Jacobi Hospital aka Bronx Municipal 1400 Pelham Parkway South Bronx, New York 10461 718-918-5000
• Lincoln Hospital 234 East 149th Street Bronx, New York 10451 718-579-5000
• North Central Bronx Hospital 3424 Kossuth Avenue Bronx, New York 10467 718-519-5000
• Coney Island Hospital 2601 Ocean Parkway Brooklyn, New York 11235 718-616-3000
• Kings County Hospital 451 Clarkson Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11203 718-245-3131
• Woodhull Hospital 760 Broadway Brooklyn, New York 11206 718-963-8000
• Bellevue Hospital 462 First Avenue New York, New York 10016 212-562-5555
• Harlem Hospital 506 Lenox Avenue New York, New York 10037 212-939-1000
• Metropolitan Hospital 1901 First Avenue New York, New York 10029 212-423-6262
• Elmhurst Hospital 79-01 Broadway Elmhurst, New York 11373 718-334-4000
• Queens Hospital Center 82-68 164th Street Jamaica, New York 11432 718-883-3000
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