A Texas mother has filed a birth injury lawsuit accusing a Kansas hospital and doctor of medical malpractice. According to the lawsuit, which was filed at the end of last month, the mother’s physician and the staff of the delivering hospital failed to properly handle her child’s birth. She claims that their negligence ultimately led to her daughter’s cerebral palsy.
The woman was admitted to the hospital on September 7, 2012, when her water broke prematurely roughly 32 weeks into her pregnancy. After performing an ultrasound, the attending obstetrician planned to keep the mother in the hospital for up to two more weeks but induce labor in the case of an infection. The mother, being legally blind at the time of admission, did not sign any of the admission orders, which included treatment with steroids and other oral and intravenous drugs. On September 20, the mother began her contractions, and on September 21 the doctor started her on Pitocin to stimulate delivery.
After over 39 hours in labor, the woman’s daughter was born in critical condition with bruises and bumps on the head. The newborn girl was taken to another hospital the next day, where brain imaging revealed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen. The child was kept under care until October 9. Eventually, her encephalopathy developed into cerebral palsy, accompanied by severely inhibited motor response and other complications.
Roughly five months after delivery, when the mother’s discharge summary was dictated to her, she learned that the hospital had noted she had delivered a healthy baby and that the little girl had done well the following hours in the nursery. In her birth injury lawsuit, the mother claims that her doctor and the hospital where she delivered demonstrated negligence in how they handled her daughter’s birth and monitored her health.
If you or a loved one believes their child suffered birth injuries due to hospital negligence, you should contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Lopez McHugh today to receive a free legal consultation. You may be entitled to damages through a birth injury lawsuit.
