Failure To Timely And Properly Treat Brain Injury
Lawsuit Against Baptist Memorial Hospital March 4, 2019 – Circuit Court of Lowndes County, Mississippi
On March 4, 2019, WVFK&N attorneys Keith Forman and Myles Poster filed a medical malpractice claim on behalf of a minor who suffered a brain injury.
According to the complaint, in January of 2017, the child’s mother presented to Baptist Memorial Hospital. The child’s mother was admitted to the labor and delivery department where she was hooked to a fetal heart rate monitor. The providers induced labor. The fetal heart rate tracing was non-reassuring for an extended period. The providers attempted resuscitative measures to address the non-reassuring signs, however, those measures did not significantly improve the child’s condition. After several hours of exposure to this dangerous uterine environment, the child was eventually delivered with episiotomy assistance. There is no indication that neonatology or NICU staff were present at the time of the delivery resulting in the delivering obstetrician implementing neonatal resuscitative measures given the child’s poor condition at birth. These resuscitative measures included positive pressure ventilation, bulb suctioning and tactile stimulation. Due to the child’s poor feeding, respiratory distress, and seizure-like activity, the decision was made to transfer him to the NICU at the University of Mississippi Medical Center for tertiary care and pediatric neurology consultation. He was noted to have “seizures, birth depression, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.” Multiple MRI studies performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center confirmed the presence of significant hypoxic-ischemic brain damage. Today, the child suffers from cerebral palsy, brain damage, and their sequela.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to properly and timely respond to the child’s condition and failed to timely and properly treat the child’s deteriorating clinical status. The child is developmentally delayed as a direct and proximate result of the defendants’ negligence. The child suffers from permanent physical and mental impairments that he will never recover from, and which will require a lifetime of care and treatment.
The action is pending in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County, Mississippi.
