Sacramento Birth Injury Lawyer Blog

The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a birth injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)

The nurse left Travis and her husband, Evan Travis, alone in the labor and delivery room. In the meantime, other labor and delivery nurses let the obstetrician go home to dinner without telling her about Sarah's symptoms or admission.

Sacramento Hospital is a Level 3 hospital specializing in high-risk deliveries. It was delivering 4,300 babies per year and had one charge nurse to cover 49 rooms on two hospital floors. The hospital allows only obstetricians to perform Caesarian sections. It had an anesthesiologist and a neonatologist available to start the anesthesia and resuscitate the baby, but it did not have an obstetrician available to perform the surgery
after the attending physician went home to dinner.

When the nurses let the obstetrician go home, there were 33 pregnant women and 16 newborns in the labor and delivery unit.

The attending nurse went back to the Travis' room and figured out the baby's heart rate was dropping on the monitor, so she had the charge nurse call the obstetrician at home to tell her to come back to the hospital. The nurses knew the baby was being asphyxiated, but they did not transfer the mother to the operating room. They did not want the patient and her husband to be waiting in the operating room until the obstetrician arrived, because the couple would then know there was no physician available to deliver the baby.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading " Sacramento Birth Injury Case Brought After Hospital Failed to Staff Adequately, Part 2 of 3 " »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a birth injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Specific Liability: Nursing staff failed to recognize the history and signs of placental abruption in a patient in labor and failed to take the necessary action to address the complication

General Injury: Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and other perinatal and neonatal injuries, resulting in cerebral palsy, seizures, spastic quadriplegia, and dysfunction of multiple organs; impairment of the parent-child relationship; emotional distress; medical and care expenses; impaired earning ability

Summary of Facts:
According to the plaintiff:
Sarah Travis, who had a history of Caesarian section and placental abruption, was a candidate for a vaginal birth at Sacramento Hospital in Sacramento, CA. Sacramento Hospital had medical documentation indicating Travis had a high risk of placental abruption.

Travis called the hospital around 7:30 pm May 30, 2002, with complaints of increased cramping and contractions. The hospital's charge nurse told her to come in for labor evaluation, but the nurses did not read her chart, know her medical history, or know her pregnancy risks.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading " Nurse’s Negligence Results in Sacramento Birth Injuries During Delivery, Part 1 of 3 " »

The following blog entry is written to illustrate an example of a birth injury case. Reviewing this kind of lawsuit should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this birth injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)

When the labor and delivery nurse returned from lunch at 11:30 a.m., she noticed decreased variability with late decelerations on the fetal movements. At 11:50 a.m., she called the obstetrician, who arrived at Plaintiff' bedside by 12:15 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, the doctor ordered a C-section, and the baby, plaintiff Alex, was delivered at 1:05 p.m. with no breathing and a heart rate below 100. The respiratory therapist had difficulty placing the ET tube, not succeeding until 1:18 p.m.

At 1:30 p.m., pediatrician Evans was called, and the neonatal intensive care unit transfer team arrived at 3 p.m. The pediatric neurologist at the transfer hospital, ABC Hospital of Folsom, diagnosed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and Alex was discharged on June 8.

In December, Alex underwent placement of a gastrostomy feeding tube.

Claiming physical damages, Plaintiffs--including plaintiff and father, age and profession undisclosed--sued the hospital and its owner, as well as the University of California and Hammer for medical malpractice.

Pediatrician Earl was originally included as a defendant, but was dismissed with prejudice in exchange for a waiver of costs at mediation.

Plaintiffs' counsel claimed that Hammer and the nurse practitioner failed to recognize the abnormal progress of Plaintiff' pregnancy and thus failed to order ultrasound testing and earlier delivery before she went into labor.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Continue reading " Baby Born With Cerebral Palsy in Sacramento Birth Injury Lawsuit, Part 2 of 2 " »