When a woman is having a baby, she can reasonably expect that every health care worker will adhere to stringent protocol and safety regulations in providing care to her and her child. If a birth injury occurs, it prompts a lot of questions, such as whether anyone on the medical team was negligent. Sadly, substandard care in hospitals in Pennsylvania and throughout the country can result in severe, even fatal injuries to women and their babies.
A case that took place on the East Coast involved a 28-year-old mother who reportedly needed an emergency cesarean section. The average obstetrician or midwife is able to recognize signs of maternal or fetal distress and can quickly determine whether a C-section is necessary. In the case of this young mother, something went very wrong in the operating room.
The woman’s boyfriend says she stopped breathing for at least nine minutes on the operating table. As a surgeon performed a C-section, the patient went into full cardiac arrest. As a consequence of a heart attack and oxygen deprivation to the brain, the woman fell into a coma for several months.
Thankfully, has since come out of her coma, although she has suffered severe brain injuries and will need months of rehabilitation care. Her boyfriend says she is now able to follow simple commands but is unlikely to ever fully recover. He blames her medical team for her brain injury, saying it was their failure to act that left the mother of his child without oxygen, thus resulting in cardiac arrest and coma. If a Pennsylvania labor and delivery patient suffers injury during the birthing process that is believed to have been caused by medical negligence, grounds may exist to pursue a medical malpractice claim in a civil court.