Tag Archives: birth injury

Is a Fast Birth a Safe Birth?

Posted on June 20, 2014 by

Though one might assume that a fast birth means a quick and complication-free experience, the reality can be quite different. The recent experience of a 33-year-old British pop singer demonstrated how birth complications can arise even amidst seemingly ideal birth conditions. The mother was about to give birth to her fifth child and everything seemed to be going according to plan. Once she asked for an epidural, things began to go awry. “It’s like I passed out but I never passed out. I could hear everyone else talking, it was really bizarre. I wish I hadn’t had the epidural,” said the mother. “They put her on my chest and something didn’t feel right.” The baby was not breathing. The birth occurred too fast for the baby to adjust to the outside world. The doctors “think she came out so fast [that] she reverted and went into delayed shock, and reverted…
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Should States Adopt Birth Injury Malpractice Funds

Posted on May 20, 2014 by

The Maryland obstetrics and gynecological (OB/GYN) community faces several million-dollar medical malpractice lawsuits for damages resulting from complications during birth. A new bill proposes the formation of a fund to pay for medical bills, lost earnings and other damages of families who have suffered birth traumas. The bill’s detractors claim that such a fund would absolve OB/GYNs of responsibility for their negligent care. “The best way for hospitals to reduce their financial burden is to prevent negligence,” said the founder of the Coalition for Patients’ Rights in Maryland. “A birth injury fund will only serve to remove accountability and thereby increase likelihood of negligence.” What Does A Birth Injury Fund Mean For Parents? After a birth injury or complication, instead of suing the doctor or hospital responsible for the injury, the child’s parents would apply to the fund. Families would then proceed through a bureaucratic process in which a judge…
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Maternity Wards Spend One Fifth of Their Budgets Covering Birth Injury Claims

Posted on January 21, 2014 by

According to a report in The Telegraph, nearly £500 million, or one fifth of the budget, of maternity units in the United Kingdom was spent on covering birth injury claims. In the same report, it was revealed that more than half of maternity units had a shortage of physicians and there is shortage of close to 2,300 midwives nationwide. However, these types of problems are not limited to the UK. In the United States, on December 23, a Lehigh County, Pennsylvania jury awarded $55 million to parents who sued St. Luke’s University Hospital and one of its doctors for medical malpractice, according to The Express-Times. During the November 2009 delivery of their son, the parents accused the doctor of ignoring signs that their son was not receiving enough oxygen and required a Caesarean section delivery, which led to their son losing more oxygen when he became stuck during vaginal delivery….
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