Nala Myers is three years old. She cannot walk or talk. She needs a feeding tube to eat. She will require assistance for the rest of her life. She had a difficult birth. When she was born, her heart was beating, but she was not breathing. A lawsuit filed by Tierra Myers, Nala’s mother, says that the hospital acted negligently in the critical five minutes following her birth, ultimately causing a brain injury. Most hospitals record an Apgar score one minute and five minutes after delivery. Apgar scores monitor breath, heart rate, muscle tone, response to stimulation and appearance. In this case, the lawsuit claims that whoever performed the one-minute Apgar score fudged the numbers to make Nala’s condition seem healthier than it was. As a result, response teams did not arrive to resuscitate the baby until it was too late. The jury deliberated for 15 hours before ultimately siding…
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Birth Injury and Cerebral Palsy Attorneys Home
Newborn Suffers Brain Injury After Hospital Delays Resuscitation
September 21, 2012Cerebral Palsy Athletes Smash Records at Paralympics
September 17, 2012Cheers, tears and jeers filled the stadium throughout the London 2012 Summer Paralympics, a major sporting event for disabled athletes following the 2012 Summer Olympics. After the Summer Olympics, the Paralympics were the largest multi-sport event that London ever hosted. There were many inspiring success stories, including Josef Craig, a swimmer with cerebral palsy who broke his own world record for the 400-meter freestyle. At 15, he also became Britain’s youngest gold medalist in the games’ history. Or Bethany Woodward, another British athlete with cerebral palsy, who claimed the silver in the 200 meter sprint. She said that runners with cerebral palsies face many obstacles. “It’s extremely difficult,” Woodward said. “Your body’s doing one thing and your brain’s trying to tell you to do another. It’s like a brick wall that you have to break through to get it done.” In one uncomfortable moment, Chancellor George Osborne received boos from…
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Procedure Helps Physicians Spot Shoulder Dystocia Risks Early
September 12, 2012Research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology says that the PeriGen fetal surveillance is successful in predicting and preventing shoulder dystocia without increasing cesarean sections. Shoulder dystocia occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck during childbirth, potentially causing nerve damage and lifelong complications or disabilities, even death. Proper medical care can prevent shoulder dystocia in most cases, but recent testing suggests that the PeriGen program, already in place at several facilities, is an effective prevention method. Researchers studied two groups of births. In one, 8,767 women gave birth using the PeriGen system. The second group of 11,958 deliveries did not use the program. Rates of cesarean section births remained constant in both groups, but shoulder dystocia was 56.8 percent lower in the group that used the PeriGen system. “The results of the study show a clear path to reduction of this potentially catastrophic outcome and we are…
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