In this educational piece, New York Medical Malpractice Attorney Robert G. Sullivan, Esq. describes how the failure to monitor a delivery, and, in some instances, perform a Caesarean Section delivery, can lead to medical malpractice.
All too often, individuals are harmed when health care professionals either fail to properly monitor a woman during labor or fail to timely perform a Caesarean section delivery (“Caesarean”). Every hospital in the United States has fetal monitoring equipment. During pregnancy, a fetal stress test can identify an infant who may not withstand the stress of labor. Monitoring a baby’s heartbeat for signals of fetal stress during labor allows a baby to be delivered by emergency caesarean section if problems arise. However, this equipment is useless if not used, if doctors and nurses fail to correctly interpret warnings, or if the monitoring devices and their output are simply ignored. Failure to properly utilize this technology can lead to serious injury and even death.
Sadly, a birth injury can occur when medical care providers fail to properly monitor the labor. It has been estimated that, for ever 1000 babies born in the U.S, five will be injured during birth. Often times, these tragedies lead to lawsuits. However, not all of these injuries give rise to a legal claim.
Generally, to find a medical professional legally at fault, it must be shown that their conduct fell below the accepted standard of medical care. In medical malpractice actions, causation is often difficult to establish. The attorney needs to demonstrate that the health care provider’s deviation from the applicable standard of care resulted in the injury in question.
If you think that you or a loved one was injured by a health care professional’s failure to monitor or failure to perform a Caesarean, you are urged to immediately seek out the proper medical care and consider contacting a New York medical malpractice attorney.