Having recently resolved a significant medical negligence case involving the negligent delay in delivering baby, resulting in a fatal hypoxic injury to the baby, we thought it important to discuss an area in which we sometimes see medical negligence occur in labor and delivery: mothers with preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder and a known complication of pregnancy that, if undiagnosed or untreated, can cause catastrophic injury or death to the fetus or mother. According to the World Health Organization, preeclampsia arises in somewhere between 2% and 10% of pregnancies. It typically arises after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Preeclampsia Signs and Symptoms
Preeclampsia is diagnosed based on common signs and symptoms that occur during pregnancy, such as the following:
- Persistent high blood pressure (hypertension) – which may or may not be associated with symptoms;
- Headache – often a dull, throbbing headache that may be accompanied by light sensitivity or vision changes;
- Elevated protein in urine (proteinuria), which can be identified via blood test;
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing;
- Nausea or vomiting;
- Pain in abdomen or shoulder;
- Weight gain and swelling (edema)
- Other blood work abnormalities (decreased platelets (thrombocytopenia), increased liver enzymes, abnormal kidney or liver function, etc.)
As noted above, preeclampsia may be diagnosed based on symptoms reported to healthcare professionals at prenatal appointments or ER visits, routine blood pressure checks, or various blood, urine, or ultrasound tests.
Medical Negligence Cases Involving Preeclampsia and Birth Injury
When a healthcare professional fails to diagnose or treat preeclampsia, serious injury or death can occur for mother or baby. When preeclampsia is first diagnosed late in the pregnancy, the proper treatment typically requires delivery of the baby – and an unreasonable delay in delivery can lead to preventable injuries.
Alternatively, when preeclampsia is diagnosed early in the pregnancy, it may be too early to deliver the baby – and therefore careful monitoring by an obstetrician (OB/GYN) throughout the pregnancy is imperative, as preeclampsia can cause a number of complications, including placental abruption, fetal growth restrictions, organ damage, cardiovascular disease, or other serious complications to the baby and mother.
The tragic cases involving medical negligence that we typically see in mothers with preeclampsia involve a failure to diagnose or closely monitor a mother with preeclampsia, failure to recognize fetal distress, and the failure to timely deliver the baby resulting in catastrophic brain injury or death to the baby or mother.
More specifically, these cases often some variation of the following fact pattern and theories of liability:
- Failure to diagnose preeclampsia despite signs (headache, shortness of breath, protein in urine, etc.) and failure to closely monitor mother and baby with electronic fetal monitoring –failure to timely deliver baby results in serious injury to baby or mother.
- Failure to safely monitor preeclampsia – sometimes in combination with gestational diabetes – and failure to safely respond to nonreactive or non-reassuring fetal heart tracings with minimal to absent variability, with eventual bradycardia and delayed C-section delivery. Catastrophic injuries often include hypoxic-anoxic injury to baby or death.
- Improper use and increase of Pitocin to mother with preeclampsia – in the face of fetal heart rate monitoring showing decelerations – leading to hypoxia and ischemia for baby.
For a Free and Confidential Consultation with one of our top-rated medical negligence attorneys regarding a potential birth injury case involving preeclampsia complications, call Passen Powell Jenkins at 312-527-4500.
