Cerebral Palsy birth injuries are often the result of poor decisions made during the birthing process – or good decisions that simply weren't exercised on time. In many cases, Cerebral Palsy birth injuries result in medical malpractice lawsuits.
Whose Responsible For Cerebral Palsy Injuries?
Who's generally responsible for a child developing Cerebral Palsy? According to birth injury lawyers, when Cerebral Palsy is caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain during labor and delivery, it's the obstetrician and the nurses associated with the labor and delivery that are generally the ones at fault. What it comes down to is recognizing, at an early stage, that this particular child is going to be unable to deal with this labor and making the decision that we're not going to go through a normal vaginal delivery, but perform a Caesarean section instead.
So it's the obstetrician mainly and then the nurses as well who are very typically skilled in these settings in determining whether or not this child is going to be able to withstand the forces of labor.
It is a timing issue. Doctors and nurses review fetal monitoring strips to make these decisions. These strips evaluate a mother's contraction rates and the baby's response to those contractions which help the doctors and nurses determine whether this is a particular baby that simply cannot withstand these forces.
Once that decision has been made, or once that light bulb is turned on, then a very quick decision needs to be made and very quick action needs to be taken to deliver this child by a different manner – typically by Caesarean section. That process seems to be quite simple. So, how do these things get missed?
Hospitals May Risk Injury To Save Money
That may sound harsh, but it's a reality in today's healthcare cost explosive world. Typically, children that have these problems are the children that are induced, where the mother does not go into labor, but rather the doctor is inducing the labor – giving the woman a drug in order to try and deliver the baby. The way it's frequently missed is that the doctors and nurses simply play the odds. In other words, this happens so infrequently that they're willing to risk what would appear to be a short term problem on these strips because that problem may disappear and then we can vaginally deliver this baby.
There is also this pressure which comes from the hospital. Very often, hospitals monitor Caesarean section rates because they increase the hospital's cost. There's this downward pressure from the hospital to reduce the Caesarean section rate which either consciously or subconsciously is in a doctor's mind. So, in some situations, they may risk it and say hey, this doesn't look terribly bad on the strips, so we'll just take our chances.
However, the absolute key in these situations is to use these strips to predict when the baby is no longer going to be able to withstand this. You have to act before that final point is met; otherwise, it's likely to be too late.
Cerebral Palsy Lawsuits Highlighted On CNN
There's been a recent series on CNN about Caesarean section rates and hospitals really wanting to get them down again. This push is starting over again, which Cerebral Palsy birth injury attorneys say happens every ten years or so. They'll claim it's because it's safer to vaginally deliver and it's easier for the woman to recover from because it's not a surgery. However, the fact of the matter is that children are being put at risk.
Experts say that there should never be a study conducted to see how frequently Caesareans are done. If a doctor feels like one should done, it should always be presumed that the doctor is acting in the best interest of the mother and the baby. Hospitals shouldn't be worried about Caesarean section rates – all they do is force a doctor into potentially taking a risky avenue as opposed to taking the safe one.