Jury Finds Doctor Responsible For Loss Of Baby To Pay Mother More Than $1.6 Million
Typically, there are 2 things individuals want from their physicians. This is all the more so when the patient is placing the health of her unborn baby under the care of the physician. First, the physician ought to listen to the woman's intuition. During the pregnancy the mother gets a sense of what is normal in her pregnancy and what is not. Disregarding complaints and her sense that something is wrong, without definitive explanation to the contrary, may result in tragedy.
Also, the doctor ought to know and react to symptoms suspicious for a considerable complication. Indeed isn't this what they are taught and trained to be able to do? It is a normal parental impulse to want, to trust, that nothing bad happens to thier unborn child and the child is born healthy. It may seem like a terrible betrayal of the have faith in placed on the doctor that he or she will be able to tell the difference between a normally progressing pregnancy especially in case it is a complication that threatens the health of the unborn baby.
In the real world, though, there is always the possibility that the pregnancy can take a very bad turn. Consider a situation in which a woman in the seventh month of her pregnancy, was admitted at the hospital by her physician with complaints of back pain, abdominal pain, and persistent vaginal bleeding. After examining her and interpreting the readings from the fetal heart rate monitor, the physician considered that the unborn child was doing fine and there was no need for any further medical intervention. The physician discharged her even thought she continued to complain of abdominal pain and continued to have vaginal bleeding.
Later that same afternoon, when the abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding got worse, this woman visited her doctor. At that point, the physician sent her to the hospital for delivery. The woman experienced significant hemorrhaging while being transported to the hospital. When she arrived at the hospital the medical staff immediately prepared her for an emergency C-section but the child was stillborn before they were able to perform the C-section. The woman needed transfusions for blood loss. The reason for the pain and vaginal bleeding was identified to be a placental abruption. The law firm that handled this lawsuit published that it went to trial and was able to obtain a jury award for $1.65 million on behalf of the parents.
Undoubtedly, an abnormal heart rate could have been a sign of a dangerous complication requiring proper action immediately. Then again so were the woman