Premature Baby Birth Injury

[Mom2Blayne]

State: Kansas

I hope I can get some advice here. I am getting very discouraged with my situation.

Here is my story:

I was 17 years old when I was date raped. Although I was on the pill I got pregnant. I found out at 20 weeks that I was pregnant with twins. They were shown to be fraternal. Baby A had hydrops and was smaller than baby A so I was I was sent to a specialist, an Internal Medicine Doctor. She said that Baby A had Turner’s Syndrome and Hydrops which is 100% fatal. They said it was just a matter of time before that baby died. Baby B looked great and was healthy and right on track for gestation.

Baby A ended up dieing at 24 weeks and I went into preterm labor. I was in and out of the hospital for the next 3 weeks. I had a check up with my doctor the day before delivery and I was starting to efface and dialte but she said I could go for weeks like that. The plan was to get me in far in my pregnancy before delivery. I was sent home again. The second night my contractions were much stronger then I had experienced before.

I was checked into the hospital at 1:00am that morning. My Dr. wasn’t on call. A resident, who I had never been seen by, came in and asked what the plan was and I told her my doctor said a vaginal delivery could be attempted but a lot of times twins end up being c-section. This was just through conversation at my appointments and she was planning on getting me to 34-36 weeks gestation before delivery. So she said ok and then proceeded to prepare for a vaginal delivery.

Baby A, was the twin that had died and was delivered first. She had stopped growing at 19 weeks and was very small. She was delivered right around 6:00am. The resident then porceeded to brake baby B’s water. She said that she felt feet. Baby B had flipped and become a double footling breech. She told me to push and tried to assist by pulling his legs. His body delivered but once his head got to my cervix it became entrapped. She proceeded to try to get him free and pulled for 8 minutes. She then had to cut my cervix to get him out. She was trying to page the on call doctor through the whole delivery but was unable to reach him. He was in the shower and did not hear the page. Baby B, was born at 27 weeks and 2 days at 6:20am on December 31st of 2003. His Apgar scores were very low 1 and 3 and he was resituated at birth.

My son has had many complications since the birth. He had severe seizures a few days after birth, a grade 3 brain bleed that resulted in brain damage. That also caused hydrocephalus. He was diagnosed last year with low tone cerebral palsy. He will be 4 in December of this year. He is still not walking, is tube fed and continues to be delayed in all areas of his development and is signiificantly delayed cognitivly.

I have contact 2 different law firms regarding my case and they are not confident enough to take on my case. They said it is way to hard to prove that his problems were caused from his difficult birth and not his prematuirty because most premature infants face some disabilities. I just strongly believe that the hospital was at fault. If an experienced doctor would have been there (the doctor never came for the delivery) they may have made some different decisions that would have prevented the difficult birth. I later talked with my high risk OBGYN and she said based on birth weight alone he should have been c-section since it has been shown that babies that little and early don't do well with a vaginal birth.

If anyone can give me advice regarding my situation it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[moburkes]

You don't list what the baby's birth weight was; just another doctor's opinion about a low birth weight baby.

All you can do is keeping contacting attorneys.

Good luck.

[lya]

Originally Posted by Mom2Blayne

State: Kansas

I hope I can get some advice here. I am getting very discouraged with my situation.

Here is my story:

I was 17 years old when I was date raped. Although I was on the pill I got pregnant. I found out at 20 weeks that I was pregnant with twins. They were shown to be fraternal. Baby A had hydrops and was smaller than baby A so I was I was sent to a specialist, an Internal Medicine Doctor. She said that Baby A had Turner’s Syndrome and Hydrops which is 100% fatal. They said it was just a matter of time before that baby died. Baby B looked great and was healthy and right on track for gestation.

Baby A ended up dieing at 24 weeks and I went into preterm labor. I was in and out of the hospital for the next 3 weeks. I had a check up with my doctor the day before delivery and I was starting to efface and dialte but she said I could go for weeks like that. The plan was to get me in far in my pregnancy before delivery. I was sent home again. The second night my contractions were much stronger then I had experienced before.

I was checked into the hospital at 1:00am that morning. My Dr. wasn’t on call. A resident, who I had never been seen by, came in and asked what the plan was and I told her my doctor said a vaginal delivery could be attempted but a lot of times twins end up being c-section. This was just through conversation at my appointments and she was planning on getting me to 34-36 weeks gestation before delivery. So she said ok and then proceeded to prepare for a vaginal delivery.

Baby A, was the twin that had died and was delivered first. She had stopped growing at 19 weeks and was very small. She was delivered right around 6:00am. The resident then porceeded to brake baby B’s water. She said that she felt feet. Baby B had flipped and become a double footling breech. She told me to push and tried to assist by pulling his legs. His body delivered but once his head got to my cervix it became entrapped. She proceeded to try to get him free and pulled for 8 minutes. She then had to cut my cervix to get him out. She was trying to page the on call doctor through the whole delivery but was unable to reach him. He was in the shower and did not hear the page. Baby B, was born at 27 weeks and 2 days at 6:20am on December 31st of 2003. His Apgar scores were very low 1 and 3 and he was resituated at birth.

My son has had many complications since the birth. He had severe seizures a few days after birth, a grade 3 brain bleed that resulted in brain damage. That also caused hydrocephalus. He was diagnosed last year with low tone cerebral palsy. He will be 4 in December of this year. He is still not walking, is tube fed and continues to be delayed in all areas of his development and is signiificantly delayed cognitivly.

I have contact 2 different law firms regarding my case and they are not confident enough to take on my case. They said it is way to hard to prove that his problems were caused from his difficult birth and not his prematuirty because most premature infants face some disabilities. I just strongly believe that the hospital was at fault. If an experienced doctor would have been there (the doctor never came for the delivery) they may have made some different decisions that would have prevented the difficult birth. I later talked with my high risk OBGYN and she said based on birth weight alone he should have been c-section since it has been shown that babies that little and early don't do well with a vaginal birth.

If anyone can give me advice regarding my situation it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Keep looking for attorneys. Leave out the date rape aspect and stick to the "facts" about the actual delivery. Pulling for 8 minutes does not seem appropriate; additionally, there are emergency "codes" for such situations and help comes running.

Keep looking and good luck!

[Mom2Blayne]

Thanks for encouragment. My son birth weight was 2lbs 5oz or 1058grams. I leave out

the date rape part unless they ask where the father is and why he isn't envolved.

I am looking into more attorneys. You right that is all I can do.

[LAWMED]

I am rather suprised you cannot find an attorney for these reasons:

You checked in at 1am and were a high risk pregnancy. You delivered some 5 hours later but no attending was in the hospital where residents are training, despite a high risk patient having been there that amount of time.

The resident should have done an ultrasound and known the fetus was breach.

A footling breach is an emergency that requires a c-section. Vaginal deliveries are notoriously disasterous in this presentation and below the standard of care. At the VERY least, you should have been moved to the OR for further attempts at a vaginal delivery while being prepped for an emergency c-section. I would assume this did not happen since the attending wasa not in the hospital so the surgery could not have been done.

Physicians who are on-call for emergencies and do not responed are liable for any injuries caused.

[Mom2Blayne]

LAWMED- Thank you so much. Those are some great points and words of wisdom. I agree completely with all that you said.

Originally Posted by LAWMED

The resident should have done an ultrasound and known the fetus was breach.

The resident and head nurse did an ultrasound shortly after I was first admitted and when it was decided I was going to deliver. At that point he was head down. That was the only ultrasound done though. I am assuming they should have checked again before delivery and had me in the OR room like you said.

Originally Posted by LAWMED

I would assume this did not happen since the attending was not in the hospital so the surgery could not have been done.

So if I understand correctly, the resident, even an upper resident, cannot perform a c-section without an attending doctor?

The doctor never even saw me before delivery. During the delivery and ER doctor had came to help and directed her to sew up my cervix. She was trying to page him through the entire delivery which was about 25-30 minutes. He said he was in the shower and did not hear the page. I am not sure if he was in the hospital or not. He finally came strolling in slowly after everything was finished and just looked and said it looks like you have things under control here and walked out!! I angers me to this day to think about it.