Birth injuries can happen when doctors take the wrong action; they can also occur when obstetrical caregivers fail to act. The Ohio birth injury attorneys at The Becker Law Firm represent families who suffered harm because of an obstetrical caregiver’s failure to diagnose, treat, or otherwise prevent a birth injury.
Contact us online or call 216-621-3000 to learn more about how we can assist you with your malpractice case.
Injuries Caused by Failure to Prevent, Diagnose or Treat
Obstetricians, nurses, and other doctors who treat pregnant women have at least two patients—the mother and the unborn child. Some medical conditions are common and some are rare, but they are all taught in medical school, written about in the medical literature, and the mother’s health care team must be prepared to deal with any emergency that arises.
From our offices in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio, we represent clients in a wide range of cases involving failure to diagnose and treat conditions such as:
- Uterine rupture: Various types of obstetrical malpractice can result in the rupture of the uterus, which can be life-threatening. There are many risk factors for uterine rupture, which is a tear in the wall of the uterus that can lead to the death of the baby or mother, cerebral palsy, or developmental delays. Doctors must be ready to act quickly to identify and treat this life-threatening situation.
- Prolapsed umbilical cord: When the umbilical cord folds over onto itself, the flow of life-sustaining blood and oxygen to the fetus can be cut off, resulting in serious, permanent brain damage or death to the child. Though relatively uncommon, this emergency medical situation is the result of an umbilical cord that is pinched by the baby during labor.
- Fetal distress: Fetal monitoring systems can pick up early indications of fetal distress. This distress can reflect oxygen deprivation caused by various factors. Failure to read and respond appropriately to these SOS signals from the baby can cause serious birth injuries or wrongful death.
- Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP): Babies can lose their eyesight very quickly, particularly if they are born premature and have abnormal development of blood vessels in their eyes. Properly identified and treated, they can have normal or near-normal eyesight. Time is of the essence, however.
- Kernicterus Birth Injuries/Severe Newborn Jaundice: Jaundice can lead to kernicterus, which is the collection of excess bilirubin in the baby’s brain. Untreated, the baby can suffer from hearing loss, developmental delays, or death.
- Hypothermia Therapy: Hypothermia therapy in newborns who experience birth asphyxia, the deprivation of blood and oxygen close to birth, is an important way to minimize future brain injury and even to prevent death. It involves keeping a baby cool for a period of time after birth.
- Test-Related Negligence: Test-related negligence can include lack of proper response to fetal monitoring or negligence that occurs during prenatal testing, such as sonograms and more.
Our Ohio failure to diagnose lawyers represent clients in cases involving failure to order necessary tests, failure to respond appropriately to test results, and failure to respond appropriately to fetal monitoring. This includes routine blood and urine tests done in a normal pregnancy exam, sonograms, and other imaging tests.
