Nurse Keeps Waiting For Doctor To Show Up While Baby In Fetal Distress
As fetal distress is a dangerous problem in pregnancy that frequently entails a diminished oxygen supply to the unborn infant. Thus, if fetal distress is noted action should be taken right away to circumvent injury to the child. Below we consider the issue of liability in a published lawsuit involving a delay of approximately two hours in reacting to signs of fetal distress. We also consider the resulting damages and the amount of the settlement.
An obstetrician is told that his patient, an expectant mother, was transported to a close by hospital subsequent to having taken a fall. An ultrasound was performed and showed no injury to the baby. The woman continued to be worried that something was not right and requested additional monitoring. Because the hospital did not have a fetal heart rate monitor she was going to be taken to a second hospital, her obstetrician was notified that she was being transferred and the doctor agreed to go to the second hospital. When at the second hospital a fetal heart rate monitor was connected to the expectant mother. The nurse at this hospital read the strip as non-reassuring and showing that the unborn baby was experiencing fetal distress. Knowing that the woman's obstetrician had agreed to see his patient there, the nurse resolved that the proper plan would be to do nothing until the doctor arrived, even while she observed that the fetal distress was getting worse.
The nurse kept waiting for the doctor to appear for 2 hours. It took the baby's heart rate reaching a critically low level before the nurse at last advised one of the hospital physicians. This physician carried out an emergency C-section right away but realized that the reason for the fetal distress was that the woman had suffered a placental abruption which had restricted the baby