Every day expectant mothers place themselves and their unborn baby in the hands of a physician to help them through labor and delivery. It might often take time after the patient is admitted to the hospital until the newborn is delivered. In some\part of this time physicians tend to rely on the nurses and staff to monitor the expectant mother's situation and to keep them informed of any complications that might arise.
The doctor is stil accountable for supervising the nurses and staff. Additionally, the nurses and staff are accountable for having the knowledge, training and experience to recognise signs of difficulties and for notifying the physician if they do arise. However, nurses and staff sometimes do not meet these requirements.
Consider the published claim regarding an expectant mother having reached full term began experiencing contractions at at home and while going to the local hospital she commenced experiencing unrelenting major pain. Upon reaching the hospital the woman told the nurse that she was in extreme pain exclaiming that she thought something was wrong. She was transferred to the Labor and Delivery unit but the nurse either failed to understand or dismissed her complaints and failed to get in touch with the obstetrician, who had still not arrived at the hospital, to inform him.
Rather the nurse acted as though this was a normal pregnancy. Precious time went by before she even commenced following the fetal heart rate. When she finally did understand that the unborn baby was experiencing fetal distress. Finally she did notify the obstetrician, who even now had not come to the hospital, by telephone. Another physician on the unit took over and performed an emergency C-section. The severe pain was from a placental abruption. The placental abruption cased the unborn baby to suffer from a reduced supply of oxygen resulting in significant brain injury. The baby is disabled for life and has to have full time attention. The law firm that handled this case reported that they were able to reach a recovery in the amount of $4,500,000 from the hospital for the nursing not spotting that the mother had experienced a placental abruption.
In this matter the patient basically signalled the nurse of her sense that there was a problem with the pregnancy. At this stage in the pregnancy major persistent abdominal pain can be caused by a placental abruption.
It is not known why the nurse failed to put these together. Whether she disregarded the patient’s complaints, did not hear them, did not have the necessary knowledge, training or experience to properly understand the situation, or discounted her complaints since a placental abruption is generally (though not every time) associated with visible vaginal bleeding, she missed indications of a dangerous problem.
The result, however, was a serious injury to the unborn child producing a permanent disability. On account of the harm from the nurse’s error the law firm that handled this matter documented that it managed to accomplish a settlement intented to ensure that the child has suitable care for life.
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