I'm sorry for your loss, no parent should watch their child die in their arms.
In terms of medical malpractice, standard of care, however, emotions are not factors in determining whether the burden of proof is meet and you must be prepared for whay may seem to be an unjust or unfair outcome.
Medicine has come a long way and years ago there would have been nothing to be done other than watch your child die. Unfortunately, what happened is a conbination of a natural process excabertating the congenital defect so that the defect wasn't apparent at birth sometimes it is not apparent for years and in your case it was a matter of hours, which is very rare. Were there any other defects found on autopsy? It is not unusual for there to be more than one defect, which together might decrease the chances of survival and even if initial treatment is successful, the child requires continued monitoring and potentially more treatment in the future. It is not as simple as if baby received prostaglandins, baby would have surived long enough to avoid end organ damage.
The attorney will not only have to have the baby's medical records from the three facilities reviewed, but also your wife's prenatal care for factors contributing to the outcome.
For example, was this a full term birth, if not, what week?
Was the labor induced, if so, how?
Were there any signs of fetal distress during labor and delivery?
Did your wife have prenatal ultrasounds, if so, at what week and who interpreted the results?
Did your wife have any problems during either pregnancy?
While you have had genetic counseling and a previous healthy child, has your healthy child been examined by a pediactric cardiologist?
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1667 As you will notice in the last sentence of the first paragraph, that symptoms can develop as early as the first week of life, but that is not the nore and usually it is after discharge from the hospital, the signs may not have been present upon examination. Your baby was examined in the nursery out of your sight many times so just because a pediatrician was not available or only looked at your child a mnute doesn't mean there was negligence, that will be revealed in the record.
I mentioned ultrasound (U/S) it is possible, especially if your child's symptoms were as severe as you indicate that there may have been a clue upon prenatal U/S, much has to do with the quality of the U/S and the objective clinical findings and how they comare to the post mortum findings, there may or not have been any warning. In addition to genetic counseling, if you decide to have another child, the prenatal testing and care will be very important and even U/S is not without risks.
It is possible that you preceive the hospital as being negligent whereas there may have been clues in prenatal care and even these might not rise to the level of negligence if they were within the standard of care. www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/2/65
www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/95
If all you want is for this not to happen to anyone else, make complaints to JCAHCO, hospital and professional boards who will investigate and make reccommendations to improve patient care.
In terms of medical malpractice, standard of care, however, emotions are not factors in determining whether the burden of proof is meet and you must be prepared for whay may seem to be an unjust or unfair outcome.
Medicine has come a long way and years ago there would have been nothing to be done other than watch your child die. Unfortunately, what happened is a conbination of a natural process excabertating the congenital defect so that the defect wasn't apparent at birth sometimes it is not apparent for years and in your case it was a matter of hours, which is very rare. Were there any other defects found on autopsy? It is not unusual for there to be more than one defect, which together might decrease the chances of survival and even if initial treatment is successful, the child requires continued monitoring and potentially more treatment in the future. It is not as simple as if baby received prostaglandins, baby would have surived long enough to avoid end organ damage.
The attorney will not only have to have the baby's medical records from the three facilities reviewed, but also your wife's prenatal care for factors contributing to the outcome.
For example, was this a full term birth, if not, what week?
Was the labor induced, if so, how?
Were there any signs of fetal distress during labor and delivery?
Did your wife have prenatal ultrasounds, if so, at what week and who interpreted the results?
Did your wife have any problems during either pregnancy?
While you have had genetic counseling and a previous healthy child, has your healthy child been examined by a pediactric cardiologist?
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1667 As you will notice in the last sentence of the first paragraph, that symptoms can develop as early as the first week of life, but that is not the nore and usually it is after discharge from the hospital, the signs may not have been present upon examination. Your baby was examined in the nursery out of your sight many times so just because a pediatrician was not available or only looked at your child a mnute doesn't mean there was negligence, that will be revealed in the record.
I mentioned ultrasound (U/S) it is possible, especially if your child's symptoms were as severe as you indicate that there may have been a clue upon prenatal U/S, much has to do with the quality of the U/S and the objective clinical findings and how they comare to the post mortum findings, there may or not have been any warning. In addition to genetic counseling, if you decide to have another child, the prenatal testing and care will be very important and even U/S is not without risks.
It is possible that you preceive the hospital as being negligent whereas there may have been clues in prenatal care and even these might not rise to the level of negligence if they were within the standard of care. www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/8/2/65
www.jultrasoundmed.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/95
If all you want is for this not to happen to anyone else, make complaints to JCAHCO, hospital and professional boards who will investigate and make reccommendations to improve patient care.