What Should I Do If My Baby Suffered An Injury Due To Perinatal Asphyxia?

DO NOT DELAY! You should contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney and team immediately. Perinatal asphyxia is often caused by medical malpractice, such as the improper monitoring of a delivery.

Generally, you will only have a medical malpractice case if the doctor failed to follow the appropriate “standard of care” during the delivery. “Standard of care” is a tricky term that generally means the level of care a prudent medical provider in a given community would provide. Cases of birth injuries caused by perinatal asphyxia require an extraordinary amount of investigation.

Your attorney may need to obtain and review thousands of pages of medical records regarding the delivery of your child. These records will need to be reviewed by an expert to determine whether the standard of care was followed during the delivery and whether any mistakes that may have been made harmed your child.

This is an expensive and time-consuming process that must begin as soon as possible to determine whether you have a claim. You also need an attorney with a thorough knowledge of the practice of child-delivery and the resources necessary to take the case to trial if necessary.  

Again, do not delay.  As we’ve stated in our previous blogs onmedical malpractice, the law limits the time in which you may bring a lawsuit for medical malpractice.

There is a Statute of Limitations in Pennsylvania requiring that any medical malpractice lawsuit be started within two (2) years of the date of any alleged malpractice or negligence which has caused your injuries. Under certain limited circumstances, the Statute of Limitations may be extended to allow you two (2) years from the date you knew or should or could have known of the malpractice or negligence. If you do not bring a lawsuit within the applicable two-year period, any claim that you may have will be forever barred.  

What Is Perinatal Asphyxia?

According to the Johns Hopkins University, Perinatal asphyxia, also known as birth asphyxia, is a term covering situations where the child is deprived of oxygen during the birthing process.  This can occur before, during or immediately after delivery. Perinatal asphyxia typically causes one of two conditions to develop: Fetal hypoxia or anoxia.

Fetal hypoxia results when the supply of oxygen to the child’s blood is reduced, but not completely cut off. While a small amount of oxygen is able to reach the child’s brain, it is not enough oxygen to allow the brain to fully function.

Anoxia occurs when the oxygen supply to the brain is completely cut off for a period of time. In either case, as the brain cells are starved of oxygen, they begin to die off, often leading to permanent brain damage.

The severity of the child’s injuries depends largely on the amount of the time the brain is deprived of oxygen.  

There are a wide range of conditions and developments during labor that cause perinatal asphyxia. These include:

- Prolonged and difficult labors: These kinds of labors often put an extraordinary amount of stress on the child. Prolonged and difficult labors may cause the child to remain in the birth canal longer than necessary and cause the child’s blood pressure to drop, decreasing the supply of oxygen to the brain.

- An umbilical cord prolapse: The Penn State Hershey Medical Center explains an umbilical cord prolapse occurs when the umbilical cord comes through the opening of the birth canal before the baby. This can lead to the umbilical cord becoming compressed, limiting or completely cutting off the flow of blood and oxygen from the baby to the mother.

- Meconium Aspiration Syndrome: According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, meconium aspiration syndrome occurs when the baby breathes in amniotic fluid containing meconium (the baby’s first passage of stool). This essentially chokes the baby and decreases the flow of oxygen.

Any situation that could result in a reduction of oxygen to the child’s brain during labor can cause perinatal asphyxia.

How Is Perinatal Asphyxia Caused by Medical Malpractice?

A recent study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found that most cases of perinatal asphyxia are preventable and caused by substandard care and medical malpractice. The most typical form of malpractice in cases of perinatal asphyxia is the failure to properly monitor the labor and delivery. If medical providers are not vigilant, they may not notice the signs of perinatal asphyxia, such as fetal stress, sudden drops in blood pressure in the mother or child, and umbilical cord prolapses.  

Medical providers may also cause some of the conditions that lead to perinatal asphyxia. The improper administration of labor-inducing drugs may lead to prolonged and difficult labors.

Similarly, mistakes made during the administration of anesthesia may cause the mother’s blood pressure to drop, cutting off oxygen to the child.  Doctors may also fail to take proper measures to intervene once they recognize the child is suffering from perinatal asphyxia. Failure to induce labor or failure to resort to more serious intervention, such as a caesarian section, can exacerbate the situation by increasing the amount of time the child’s brain is being deprived of oxygen.

Lastly, even in cases where the medical providers have not caused the perinatal asphyxia, they may not recognize its symptoms in the child after birth. These include weak muscle tone, bluish skin, low heart rates and blood pressure, and abnormal heart beats. Since time is of the essence, failure to diagnose perinatal asphyxia allows the oxygen deprivation to last longer than necessary, causing severe and permanent brain damage.  

What Treatments Are Available for Erb’s Palsy?

Treatments for perinatal asphyxia include mechanical breathing assistance, the administration of nitric oxide, inducing hypothermia (cooling the baby’s internal body temperature), and connecting the child to a life-support system.

In any case of perinatal asphyxia, early recognition of symptoms and intervention is often the key to limiting the damage to your child and maximizing his or her recovery. Failure to intervene immediately can lead to severe and permanent injuries, such as death, coma, cerebral palsy, seizures, and developmental delays.    

Contact Us Today

At the Law Office of Alvin F. de Levie, Esq., our team has years of experience handling cases for those who have suffered birth injuries as a result of medical malpractice throughout the Commonwealth, including birth injuries like Erb’s palsy. We have handled cases from Philadelphia and the surrounding counties to Allegheny County, including Blair County, Centre County, Lycoming County, Montour County, Mifflin County, Cambria County, Cumberland County and Dauphin County.

If you have suffered an injury as a result of medical malpractice, please call our firm – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – at 844-777-2529 (Toll-Free) for a consultation. One of our team members will be in immediate contact with you. We maintain offices throughout Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, State College, Bellefonte and Lock Haven, and we are willing to meet any clients throughout the Commonwealth.