A doctor has an obligation to provide a standard level of treatment and care to a pregnant woman, during childbirth and after childbirth. This is critical to the babies’ health. Delivery mistakes can lead to serious birth injuries, including cerebral palsy, erbs palsy, mental retardation, even death.
A medical malpractice attorney who specializes in birth injuries, must explain to the jury exactly where medical negligence occurred. In order to do this, a birth injury medical malpractice lawyer, such as Dr. Bruce G. Fagel, begins by explaining to the jury what a normal labor and delivery is supposed to look like. After familiarizing the jury with the normal birthing process, Dr. Fagel then illustrates exactly how things can go wrong. This can include problems with the placenta not functioning properly or the umbilical cord prolapsing through the birth canal as the babies’ head is coming down, getting trapped against the head, and causing the cord to kink, cutting off the blood supply. Any number of issues with the placenta not functioning properly can deprive the baby of a proper supply of oxygen or blood to the brain.
When the umbilical cord gets wrapped around the babies’ neck or another body part and cuts off blood supply in a very short and severe fashion, a particular type of injury can occur to the brain in the midbrain area, as opposed to the cerebral cortex. When an injury occurs to the midbrain, it affects the motor center and coordination, and these babies come out with a true form of cerebral palsy, including the inability to walk or control their muscles. This allows the child to have normal mental and cognitive functions, but affects the nerve centers that connect to the spinal cord.
In a medical malpractice case, we have to demonstrate how the actions or inactions of a doctor or nurse, including failure to properly watch for warning signs, such as those from a fetal monitor strip, could have prevented the birth injury from occurring in the first place. Dr. Bruce G. Fagel is a
child attorney medical malpractice specialist and represents families who suffer from a birth injury due to medical malpractice.