Verdict For $2,750,000 After Doctor's Failure to Detect Premature Membrane Rupture
An amniotic sac that ruptures prior to the onset of labor is a situation called premature rupture of membranes. When this happens most doctors agree that the mother should be admitted to the hospital to be monitored for at least three to four days. During that time the expectant mother ought to be given an antibiotic to prevent infection in her uterus and a steroid to encourage lung growth in her baby. As the baby may need to be delivered early when premature rupture of membranes occurs, the combination of the two drugs raises the baby's likelihood of living.
In this situation, the mother went to see her doctor because she felt wetness in her undergarments. After she reached the hospital, her doctor performed a speculum test and connected her to a fetal monitor. Roughly five minutes after the examination, the fetal monitor was removed and the mother's obstetrician informed her that she had a yeast infection. The mother being unhappy with the care she received decided to switch physicians and scheduled an appointment with her primary care physician. Yet, before she had her appointment she saw blood in her urine and afraid for her baby's health she went to her primary care physician right away. At the hospital the doctor informed her that her baby did not have a heart beat and established by ultrasound that her child was dead. Following the delivery of her stillborn child, her primary care doctor informed her that the membranes of the amniotic sac were ruptured. A condition that could have been recognized sooner and if it had been,her child may have been saved. A autopsy of the child indicated that the mother had an intrauterine infection which lead to placental abruption in the end resulting in the child's death.
The mother hired an lawyer and filed a claim against her doctor. During the trial the mother's lawyer was able to argue that the obstetrician did not meet the standard of care. At the time that the mother went to her doctor after she felt wetness in her undergarments the obstetrician should have conduct 3 tests on the mother, a nitrazine test, a ferning test and an ultrasound. The nitrazine test is like a litmus test in that it determines the ph in a woman's vagina. The result was suspicious for the membranes of the amniotic sac having ruptured. The ferning test would have told the physician how much of amniotic fluid that was present in the mother's vaginal secretion.
Finally, the mother's ultrasound would have provided the doctor with information regarding how much amniotic fluid was in the amniotic sac and how much she had already lost. The mother's physician failed to perform any of these three tests. Moreover, the physician did not realize that the fetal heart monitor showed signs that the child had cord compression. Moreover, after the obstetrician receipt of the mother's white blood cell count test results, which showed she might have an infection in her uterus, the obstetrician did not change his diagnosis, he did not the contact the mother and give her the results and he did not request that she come back into the office for additional testing. The law firm that handled that case reported that after considering all these factors, the jury found the doctor negligent and awarded a verdict of $2.75 million to the mother.