Medical Malpractice Attorneys For Separation Of The Placenta (Placental Abruption)
Watch our video to learn how medical malpractice attorneys for separation of the placenta help with these types of medical malpractice cases.
Video Transcript
Medical Malpractice Attorneys For Separation Of The Placenta (Placental Abruption)
We’re talking about placenta abruption. That is a term that means that during pregnancy, the placenta is the tissue within the uterus that essentially cushions the baby. The amniotic sac, where the baby is positioned, lies right next to the placenta and then the uterus, and then all of that is within the uterus. The placenta provides nourishment to the baby during the whole pregnancy gestational process.
Placental abruption is the medical term meaning that the placenta is supposed to lie up against the wall of the uterus. For some reason, it gets separated, it gets peeled back, and when that happens, the areas of the placenta that are separated from the wall of the uterus can’t get any blood. It can’t get any nourishment, and as a result, the baby doesn’t get as much blood and nourishment.
Also, placental abruption can be a very, very catastrophic situation. I’ve probably litigated about a half-dozen cases dealing with placental abruption, and unfortunately, most of the time, when it happens, it’s something that happens very, very quickly. The baby’s, you’re looking at the fetal monitoring strips which gauge the baby’s heart rate and the baby’s heart rate is, you know, bumping there at 130-140, which is normal, 130 beats per minute, and then it looks like the heart rate just falls off a cliff, it just goes down to 60.
When the placenta peels away from the uterus and during those situations, you know, obviously the doctors have to respond immediately. Still, sadly, even if the doctors respond instantaneously, in a number of cases, there’s a catastrophic outcome with the death of the baby.
Now the cases that do have some ability to be won are situations where there is a gradual separation of the placenta from the uterus. You can see the baby’s heart rate kind of fluctuate and going down, and the baby shows signs of distress which necessarily would have given the doctors much more time to basically intervene and do a cesarean section to get the baby out quickly, and those strips are either underread, misread, or just simply ignored.
Sadly, I see that I see that all too often where a baby is there, there’s a gradual placental abruption that’s going on, and you know the nurses and the doctor asleep at the switch, this baby’s crying out. You can see it in the heart rate and the heart rate fluctuation. The tracing has become very, very concerning, not reassuring, and there needs to be action. There’s nothing that’s done intervening or better to see better what’s going on.
Those are the cases that I see all too often. It happens a lot. It happens a lot because of just the bad state of nursing. Sadly, a number of situations I see are where you have labor and delivery nurses who are not properly trained. They may be travel nurses that are just filling in at a hospital. They just don’t have the requisite experience and training to look at the strips properly, and when that happens, you know, catastrophe occurs.
So those are sad situations; the symptoms associated with placental abruption are just acute abrupt abdominal pain and bleeding. Those are the classic signs that women see when they have an abruption or separation of the placenta from the uterus, and again what I was manifesting in the baby is that there’s a sharp drop in the heart rate, in the baby’s heart rate. Those are sad situations, and these moms who have been carrying these babies often to term, full-term, you know, they’re sitting there brimming with hope and optimism, and all of a sudden, they’re there with a dead baby.
Not a good scenario, and again, if that has happened to you or any of your family members, please, you know, give our medical malpractice attorneys a call. This is what we do, and you all should not be the only ones you know shouldering the burden of other people’s mistakes.
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