Boston High-Risk Delivery Negligence
High risk deliveries happen everywhere, all the time. In most cases, medical professionals know beforehand that the case is a high-risk one, and are able to take precautions to prevent injury, illness, or fatality as a result of high-risk deliveries. When injury, illness, or death is caused by a high-risk pregnancy or delivery, there is a chance that it could have been prevented. Only a qualified medical malpractice attorney with experience as a high-risk delivery lawyer can help you determine whether or not negligence was a factor in your case.
What Constitutes a High-Risk Pregnancy?
High-risk pregnancies can have many different causes, including:
- Preeclampsia and eclampsia (formerly toxemia)
- Preterm labor / preterm delivery
- Multiples (twins, triplets)
- Gestational Diabetes
- Placenta Previa
- Fetal health problems
- Some medical conditions in the mother’s general pre-pregnancy health
There are tests for all of these conditions, and your doctor or midwife should be screening and monitoring you for all of them. If any of these conditions are present, there are treatments available, which your doctor or midwife should offer. Not offering treatment, and failing to screen for these problems is negligence.
Can High-Risk Deliveries Happen in Healthy Pregnancies?
There are scenarios that happen in otherwise healthy pregnancies that make for a high-risk delivery. Doctors and midwives should be trained in countering these issues whenever possible, and should take measures to monitor for them, and treat them when they occur. These conditions include:
- Breech or other abnormal fetal positioning
- Unusual birth weight/size of baby
- Labor and delivery that is too fast, or too long
- Emergency caesarean sections
- Delivery that requires the use of measures such as vacuum extraction or forceps
- Labor that requires induction
In all of these cases, the medical staff should be prepared to act. They should be monitoring the mother and fetus throughout labor, and they should always err on the side of caution. When a doctor does not act quickly in birth-emergencies, and illness or injury result, there could be a case for medical malpractice, and you should contact your Boston medical malpractice lawyer.
How Does a Medical Malpractice Attorney Prove Fault?
When medical staff fail to take proper care of you and your unborn child, there is a good reason to contact your Boston medical malpractice lawyer. If injury or illness resulted from a high-risk delivery, you should certainly contact a high-risk delivery lawyer, to determine if there are actions that should be taken.
Fault can be proven with the help of a team of lawyers and doctors, who will go over your case, determining if the doctor failed to do any of the following:
- Screen for pre-pregnancy conditions that would lead to high-risk delivery
- Screen for pregnancy-specific conditions that lead to high-risk delivery
- Closely monitor the mother and baby before and during labor
- Treat known conditions
- Act quickly in emergencies, in the best interest both the mother and child
Contacting a Boston Medical Malpractice Lawyer
If you suspect that medical malpractice led to a high-risk delivery going badly, contact one of our high-risk delivery lawyers today. A medical malpractice attorney understands that you deserve compensation for both medical bills and mental distress.