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Failure To Detect Fetal Distress

Failure to Detect Fetal Distress

Failing to detect fetal distress can put mothers and babies in harm’s way. During labor and delivery, doctors and medical teams perform a variety of tests and look at data showing how mom and baby are doing throughout the process. If things like irregular fetal heartbeat or signs of fetal distress are ignored or overlooked, babies are at risk of dangerous and potentially life-threatening birth injuries. If your baby suffered a birth injury due to a failure to detect fetal distress, you need to contact a personal injury attorney with birth injury case experience as soon as possible about your case. Listed below are just a few of the types of fetal distress that doctors and medical teams should be on the lookout for.

Types of Fetal Distress

  • Decreased heart rate
  • Fluctuating heart rate
  • Hypoxia
  • Stained amniotic fluid
  • Anemia
  • Oligohydraminos
  • Placental eruption

Detecting Fetal Distress

Monitoring the baby during labor and delivery is an essential part of any healthy and safe birth. Doctors, nurses and other members of your delivery team should all be well trained, educated and experienced enough to detect the signs of fetal distress before you and your baby are in trouble. These detection methods include monitoring the fetal heartbeat, checking to see that the baby is getting enough oxygen and a variety of other tests and monitoring techniques that give medical teams immediate updates on how the baby is doing during the birthing process.

Failing to Detect Fetal Distress

When doctors fail to detect fetal distress, babies are at risk for birth injuries. Mother’s health and lives are also endangered when doctors fail to detect fetal distress. With advanced medical technology, there is absolutely no excuse for simply failing to monitor and detect fetal distress as soon as it occurs. If this kind of medical negligence causes your baby to suffer from a birth injury, it’s critical to speak with a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible about your claim.

Preventable Birth Injuries

Any kind of birth injury is heartbreaking, but when injuries occur due to easily preventable errors, it’s doubly difficult to process. Families need answers. Depending upon what happened in the delivery room, babies can suffer from milder types of birth injuries that may resolve in weeks or months or severe and catastrophic birth injuries that can impact them and their families for the rest of their lives. If fetal distress isn’t caught in time, babies and mothers could be at risk for life-threatening complications. If you suspect your baby suffered from a preventable birth injury, it’s important to speak with a personal injury lawyer who has birth injury case experience. These cases are time sensitive, and investigations can be lengthy. To determine if your baby’s birth injury could have been prevented, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a personal injury lawyer.

Injuries Associated With Fetal Distress

  • Brain injury
  • Developmental delays
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Erb’s palsy
  • Vision deficits
  • Death

Immediate Assessment of Labor Complications

Ultimately, one of the most important parts of the labor and delivery process is immediate assessment of labor complications. Elaborate birth plans go out the window when a baby is in distress, and the only thing that matters is safety. Mothers and families are counting on their delivery teams to detect fetal distress at the earliest stage to prevent potentially dangerous injuries. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had an easy birth before, or if everything was going well up until a point. Once your baby is in distress, it’s time for your team to immediately recognize the signs, assess the situation and act accordingly. Anything less is medical negligence and puts babies and moms at risk.

Jackson Failure to Detect Fetal Distress Lawyer

Babies who suffer from preventable birth injuries due to a failure to detect fetal distress may need additional supportive care after the birth. Depending upon the severity of the injury or whether or not a C-Section was performed in an appropriate amount of time, your baby may be facing a lifetime of health challenges and learning difficulties. The initial hospital visit is just the tip of the iceberg, and expenses can add up quickly. After a preventable birth injury happens, speak with a lawyer. He or she can be your advocate and help to get the compensations you deserve for vital medical care for your newborn baby.

If your baby has suffered from a preventable birth injury to due a failure to detect fetal distress in the delivery room in or around the Jackson Metro Area, contact the skilled and proven team at Coxwell & Associates, PLLC at (601) 265-7766 for an immediate free case consultation.

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