Baby's Head Decapitated During Botched Delivery; NY Medical Malpractice ...

Gerry's Educational Medical Malpractice Website

A pregnant woman's worst nightmare.

This story comes from the New York Daily News reporting about an incident that happened to a Missouri couple that resulted in the wrongful death of their baby during her delivery.

The woman's obstetrician had told her that she should not have a vaginal delivery because the baby was simply too big. When she went into labor, another obstetrician was on call and told her it would be perfectly fine to have a vaginal delivery and that she did not need a cesarean section.

After the baby's head was delivered, the shoulders became stuck.

According to the allegations by the Missouri couple the doctor began to apply excessive traction to the baby's head. They claim that they saw blood spurting from the baby's head and neck. To make matters worse, they also allege that the doctor then tried to cover up this horrific incident by pushing the baby's head back into the mother's birth canal and then rushing the mother to have an emergency C-section.

During the course of the cesarean section they claim that the doctor surgically removed the baby's head and then tried to cover-up the incident as the baby was passed to the mother.

When a baby's shoulder becomes stuck during delivery, this is known as shoulder dystocia. Doctors are taught different maneuvers that they can use in the event the shoulders become stuck during the delivery.

The first is a procedure known as McRobert's maneuver. This second involves an attempt to rotate the posterior arm in an effort to rotate the shoulders, without ever touching the baby's head.

Another maneuver includes breaking the baby's clavicle to collapse the shoulders and allow the shoulders and body to pass through the birth canal.

A final maneuver, though rare, called the Zavanelli maneuver, is where the physician intentionally fractures the mother's pelvis in an attempt to open up the birth canal to allow the baby to pass through.

There are instances where the baby's shoulder becomes stuck and a physician applies excessive traction to the baby's head. Doing this can cause injury to the nerves that run from the baby's neck down into the shoulder and armpit area. This is known as the brachial plexus.

An injury to this group of nerves can cause a condition known as erbs palsy or klumpke's palsy. A significant injury to the brachial plexus during delivery can result in a permanent arm injury that can be disabling.

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Here's a cardiac malpractice case where I was able to achieve a $6 million dollar settlement for my client.

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