1. Cerebral Palsy. We represent a family whose young child has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. During her pregnancy with this child, the mother had mild hypertension (high blood pressure), and was put on the beta-blocker Atenolol, which is known to be potentially harmful to the fetus, and is not recommended for use in pregnancy. Also, there was very little fetal surveillance in the third trimester.
At 37 weeks gestation, the mother sensed that her fetus was not moving or moving as much. She immediately called her obstetrician, who told her to go to the hospital right away. When the fetal monitors were applied, the fetal heart rythym was non-reassuring (non-reactive). After several hours in the hospital, an on-call obstetrician arrived and delivered the baby via cesarian section. Upon entering the uterus, the OB noted very little amniotic fluid (a condition known as oligohydramnios). The baby had respiratory distress and was transferred to a hospital better equiped to handle these situations.
The child has cerebral palsy, and is permanently impaired. He probably will never walk, live independently, and is probably mentally handicapped.
2. Massive Stroke. We represent the family of a gentleman who underwent a procedure to correct a condition known as Atrial Fibrillation. Our client had atrial fibrillation for many years before this procedure, and had taken the blood thinner Coumadin, 5 mg/day.
The procedure failed in that the patient returned to atrial fibrillation about 24 hours after the procedure. Although the patient had taken 5 mg of Coumadin a day for many years, the surgeon instead put him on .5 mg, or 1/10 the customary dose. About 1 week later, our client had a massive stroke, rendering him permanently impaired (left sided paralysis, inability to express himself, inability to live independently). He requires 24 h/day care.
Kelsey Young. We represent the estate of Kelsey Young, who was 20 years old and died from H1N1. Kelsey was pregnant and presented to Dublin Methodist Hospital with flu symptoms. The standard of care is to give Tamiflu to patients with suspected H1N1. This was not done. Instead, the emergency physician relied on the rapid antigen test in deciding whether to give Tamiflu. That is a mistake because there are many false negatives with the rapid tests; in fact, many hospitals do not even use the rapid tests for this very reason. Kelsey was discharged from the hospital. Three days later — her symptoms getting worse — she presented to Doctors Hospital, where she eventually was diagnosed with H1N1, but by then it was too late; Kelsey died at Doctors Hospital.
Keywords: Medical Malpractice; Medical Negligence; Malpractice; Pregnancy; Birth Injury; Cerebral Palsy, Oligohydramnios; spastic diplegia; spastic quadriplegia; Atenolol; Beta-Blocker; Fetal Surveillance; handicap; stroke; heart attack; myocardial infarction; atrial fibrillation; coumadin; peripheral vascular disease; H1N1; flu; influenza.
