Brain Damaged Baby Result of Poor Staff Decisions
Posted in Medical Malpractice on April 22, 2014
Ohio medical malpractice lawyer Jay Kelley recalls the tragedy of one family whose infant suffered brain damage due to a birth injury.
The birth of a child should be one of the most exciting and happy times in a family’s life. Unfortunately, sometimes happiness turns to tragedy when a baby is harmed in the birthing process.
Such is the case for one of our clients, their precious baby suffered severe brain damage during delivery. It was expected to be a routine Caesarean Section delivery, but the process took much longer than normal.
Typically, doctors complete this type of delivery in 20 minutes, but our client’s delivery took nearly an hour. Compounding this issue was a change of personnel during the delivery process—the hospital staff in the room left, and new personnel were brought in. It is typically protocol to keep the same staff on a case during delivery especially during such a surgical procedure.
When the staff that started the delivery was placed in other areas of the hospital, our client’s delivery became less of a priority. In the room now was an employee who had not performed certain procedures in nearly two decades. Due to a lack of training, the child was not getting enough oxygen and began to turn blue. The baby developed profound respiratory problems, had to be resuscitated and put in an incubator.
Of course, no delivery is without risks and it’s not uncommon for a baby to need to be placed in an incubator. In fact, when reading the medical records and charts of our client, they seemed to state everything went well. However, it was only during the discovery phase of the litigation process in which the lack of qualified staff in the room and how the child’s injury actually occurred was finally revealed. Had a claim never been filed, they family never would have known their child’s suffering and future health problems were the result of negligence. It takes an experienced attorney to uncover the truth and help families receive compensation for the pain and suffering caused by this lack of medical care.
To learn more about personal injury law, I encourage you to watch the video above and to explore our educational website at www.elkandelk.com. If you have legal questions, please call us at 1-800-ELK-OHIO. I welcome your call.