When medical professionals fail to respond to signs of fetal distress, the results lead to permanent brain damage and physical disabilities for a newborn. Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Failures occur when doctors or nurses miss the warning signs of oxygen deprivation during labor. These mistakes cause life-altering conditions like cerebral palsy or hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Medical teams use electronic devices to...
The preventable brain damage from untreated jaundice is a condition known as kernicterus, which develops when a newborn’s bilirubin levels rise too high and enter the brain tissue. Bilirubin is a yellow pigment that forms when old red blood cells break down. While many babies have a mild form of this condition that resolves on its own, a failure by doctors to provide light therapy or other interventions leads to per...
A NICU error is a deviation from the accepted standard of care that causes a preventable injury to a newborn. When your premature baby suffers a setback, hospitals may point to their inherent medical fragility. But this fragility is sometimes used as a shield to hide mistakes like medication dosing errors, unmonitored oxygen levels, or failures in infection control. The hard reality is that while premature babies face a...
A failure to detect an umbilical cord prolapse may be considered medical malpractice when a healthcare provider does not follow the established standard of care, leading to a birth injury. This happens when medical staff miss known risk factors, fail to monitor the fetal heart rate correctly, or delay an emergency C-section once the prolapse is identified. Proving this failure requires showing a direct link between the provid...
Filing a Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) claim is a legal action taken to secure financial support for your child's lifelong care when the brain injury was caused by a medical professional's failure to meet the required standard of care during labor or delivery. This means proving that a doctor's or hospital's action—or inaction—led to the oxygen deprivation that caused your child's injury. These cases require a det...