During my labor and delivery the hospital staff caused injury to my son. Is this medical malpractice?

During labor the hospital staff broke my water and had me pushing when I was dilated to a 7 only. We lost baby's heartbeat for lack of water/oxygen. They had to pump water back inside of me to bring heartbeat back up. One of the nurses drew blood from my arm then tried to put an IV in the same hole causing blood to squirt everywhere. At one point the nurse even took my blood pressure on the same arm with my IV.

I was having trouble delivering so they tried and failed repeatedly with the vacuum tool. They had been calling and calling to the other doctor who knew how to do a vacuum extraction.

They were going to rush me to emergency surgery for a c-section since the baby's heartbeat was dangerously low. I was stuck waiting in the hall while bleeding everywhere because the doctors and nurses could not find the keys to open the door to the operating room. Nobody in the hospital could locate the keys so they had to take me around through a side door and around to get in the O.R. They didn't have any of the proper tools or equipment for this situation. The OR was not stocked or prepared so we had to wait longer.

This entire time since they had broken my water the baby had gotten stuck in the birth canal and his heartbeat is getting worse. They were unable to do c-sections because he was too low to pull out my stomach. By the time the other Dr showed up & began working on me, the last and final option was to cut me open down there and try with the vacuum again. That failed several times, and when they finally got my son out he was black and blue and not breathing because he had been stuck in there so long with no oxygen and water. They weren't sure they would be able to revive him.

I kept seeing the Dr shake her head no. After almost 4 minutes, they finally resuscitated him. His head was severely cut open and bleeding from the vacuum and other tools. His face and head were bruised, swollen, and the wounds on his head got infected. One Dr told me it was fine but when I got a second opinion we found out my son had a blood infection. They did tests and labs and were unable to identify the infection. they had him on iv antibiotics. Dr said the labs were growing bacteria but they couldn't tell what kind so they were going to send them to another hospital.

By this point it’s the fifth day and the other hospital had identified something that looked like meningitis and the antibiotics they were treating him with would not cover meningitis so he has been 5 days without proper treatment. We decided to flight for life him to a children's hospital 200 miles away. They retested and did another spinal tap concluding Bacterial Meningitis and started the proper IV antibiotic. He was at the Children's Hospital for 2 weeks. He blew all the veins in both arms, had several IV's in his head, and 3 pick lines going straight to his heart.

Now he is 10 months old and has mild hearing loss. The audiologist said not really sure if it's from the meningitis or because he has had so many ear infections and has fluid in his ears. Now he has to have tubes in his ears and adenoids removed. He is always sick and has a fever at least every 2 weeks. His immune system is weak and I think it's from the meningitis.

If the hospital here wouldn't have cut his head open so badly, then it got infected, then it took up to 5 days and they still couldn't identify the bacteria or infection so he had been without treatment for 5 days which lead to bacterial meningitis. I am completeley shocked at how badly this situation was managed. Is this a case for a medical malpractice lawyer?

Answers (1)

This sounds like a failure of the overall hospital staff to act quickly enough and appropriately to fetal distress. The potential consequences of such negligent care can lead to severe permanent disabilities such as cerebral palsy. In that sense it sounds like you were fortunate your son did not suffer even greater injury.

Often times, methods of forced extraction can cause injuries to the baby, and it sounds like this is also what happened to your son.

You may be able to seek compensation through a medical malpractice birth injury lawsuit. You are highly advised to talk to a medical malpractice lawyer to get advice regarding the merits of your case and legal options.

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