When a child sustains brain injury at birth, parents are left wondering what went wrong. While there’s often no answer, let alone one to the pivotal question, “could this have been prevented?” Understanding whether a brain injury was an outcome of unavoidable circumstances or preventable medical negligence is based on the specifics of prenatal and delivery care.
Was There Adequate Monitoring Throughout Labor?
There’s a reason for continuous fetal monitoring. A baby should have their heart rate checked during labor and if anything goes awry, medical staff must intervene. Heart rate checks gauge whether a baby is getting enough oxygen, whether the umbilical cord is compressed, whether other issues are emerging.
It’s not just enough to have been monitoring and have data. It’s important to determine whether medical staff intervened appropriately. For example, if a medical professional understands that a certain heart rate pattern has been sustained for too long without any reaction on their end, this is highly concerning.
Family members who believe that their child has been injured due to ineffective monitoring or responding too late to an opportunity to avoid a brain injury at birth should question everything. A Brain Injury At Birth Claim can help them seek what should have happened differently to secure the necessary means of support for effective lifelong care.
Medical professionals are trained to respond to something out of the ordinary. If decelerated heart rate or deceleration without variability occurs and they make notes of it but choose not to intervene, brain injury becomes all the more preventable through medical action that never took place.
Were There Preexisting Factors That Complicated Labor And Delivery?
Not every pregnancy is created equal. Certain conditions like gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, placental issues, factors concerning the baby’s size or growth warrant more monitoring, and in some cases, induce labor earlier than full term.
The question must be asked whether medical professionals acknowledged these issues and acted otherwise (or with more vigilance) accordingly. A baby who’s particularly large has additional risks associated with vaginal delivery efforts; a mother who’s known to have high blood pressure must receive adequate levels of observation to ensure that oxygen isn’t compromised by additional complications.
Here’s what matters: was there a plan according to identifiable concerns? Were concerns communicated among caregivers? Many times, brain injuries occur because they aren’t comprehensively acknowledged during prenatal appointments and do not travel to those who need to know during delivery.
Was It Timely Delivery?
Timing is everything. For some mothers, delivering a few weeks early is more beneficial than trying to carry a couple more weeks and risk unnecessary complications before extensive medical needs exist outside the womb.
Some situations occur, however, where babies need extra time in the womb, but caregivers believe that by administering Pitocin or attempting forceps will ease their premature struggles when in fact, sustaining delivery would have been better.
In this regard, identifying markers throughout pregnancy should determine whether it’s safe not only for the mother and child but also what signals they’re receiving for further action or inaction. If blood pressure is dropping for the mother or if the placenta isn’t working effectively anymore, waiting too long means that brain damage can already occur through asphyxiation.
But the opposite matters too; jumping the gun means that premature decisions, ones with complicated risks of their own, can create unnecessary situations that wouldn’t have happened had time been taken into consideration. What’s important is determining whether professionals assessed appropriately with due diligence covering all angles or if they made premature decisions without proper justification over time.
How Did Professionals Handle Unexpected Circumstances?
Very few children come into this world without unexpected occurrences. Whether a prolapsed cord, shoulder dystocia, placental abruption or hemorrhaging happen at birth, there’s a universal way for medical professionals to respond based on efficient assessment of what occurred and how.
The problems lie in whether help is called almost instantly; whether additional staff get involved; whether emergency cesarean sections enter the frame by professionals assessing what should not happen with vaginal birth delivery.
In any case, within seconds a baby could receive irreversible damage if they’re not getting enough oxygen; brain cells die rapidly without adequate access. Recognized processes exist within hospitals so that staff understand when situations are going south and how quickly they need to intervene. If they do not do so, brain injuries become permanent based on avoidable delays.
What Do the Medical Records Show?
Sometimes the records speak for themselves through a combination of documentation and eyewitness accounts from parents who can put the pieces together weeks later despite the shock of delivery. For example, if something noted, and concerning, never received action worth noting based on detailed records that gap information from Medical Professional 1 to Medical Professional 2 to Medical Professional 3, then something happened worth investigating further.
If vital checks weren’t made based on assessment or talking points, or between scheduled checks according to the time stamp in delivery, then something else stands out worth combing through with fine tooth combs in necessary investigations.
Sometimes discrepancies between what parents hear happened and what truly is documented opens up doors for unnecessary discrepancies; other times parents just feel that something was wrong. Mothers’ instincts matter; compounded by evidence found later show that there was something worth exploring.
Finding Out Answers
Determining whether a brain injury was preventable doesn’t necessarily assign blame just because it can, it’s done to assess what happened for children so they can gain appropriate support and compensation for themselves and hopefully prevent similar situations from befalling other families down the line.
It’s not as simple as asking these questions and getting yes or no answers. Instead, these answer questions require comprehensive review of other medical professionals who’ve seen what’s gone on and determined whether appropriate standards have been put in place throughout the process, for those birthing children with this preventable injury mean so much more than what’s gone wrong in hindsight, they represent what’s possible for every student of life in every unique situation.
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