As fetal distress is a serious complication in pregnancy that often involves a loss of oxygen supply to the unborn baby. Thus, when fetal distress is noted action must be taken immediately to prevent harm to the baby.
Below we consider the issue of liability in a case involving a delay of approximately two hours in reacting to signs of fetal distress. We also consider the resulting damages and the settlement result.
Liability:
An obstetrician is notified that his patient, a pregnant female, had been taken to a nearby hospital after she had fallen. The patient had undergone an ultrasound at the hospital in order to check for any harm to her baby and the ultrasound had been interpreted as showing no injuries. The obstetrician agrees to meet his patient at a second hospital to which she is going to be transferred in order to have additional monitoring which the first hospital is not properly equipped to perform.
After being transported to the second hospital, the patient is connected to a fetal heart rate monitor which was read by the labor and delivery nurse at the second hospital as indicating that the patient's unborn baby is in fetal distress. Knowing that the patient's obstetrician had agreed to meet his patient there, the nurse decided that the appropriate course of action would be to wait for the obstetrician to arrive, even as she saw that the fetal distress was worsening.
The nurse continued to wait for the obstetrician to show for two hours. She waiting until the monitor indicated that the baby's heart rate had precipitously dropped to dangerously low levels. It was only then that the labor and delivery nurse notified an obstetrician at the hospital of the situation. This obstetrician immediately performed an emergency C-section but found that the explanation for the fetal distress had been a placental abruption which had cut off the baby's oxygen supply.
It turned out that the patient's obstetrician had gone home instead of going to the hospital as he had indicated he would - essentially abandoning his patient and her baby and making him a defendant in the lawsuit. Since fetal distress requires immediate action the labor and delivery nurse at the second hospital became the second defendant in the lawsuit by the parents due to her decision to wait for the patient's obstetrician to arrive instead of notifying the in-house obstetrician until two hours later.
Damages:
The baby was not breathing when he was born. The Apgar scores were 0 and 0. The baby could not be revived by the medical staff.
Case Result:
The law firm was able to report that they achieved a settlement totaling $750,000 on behalf of the baby's parents.
This case illustrates both (1) a physician's duty to follow up on the care of his patient and (2) a nurse's duty to make sure that a physician is notified immediately signs of fetal distress are detected.
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