How Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress Causes Brain Injuries

The medical team attending a laboring mother has a legal obligation to carefully monitor both mother and unborn child, including watching for signs of fetal distress. When an unborn baby shows signs of fetal distress, the medical team must immediately act to notify the attending physician of the baby’s change in status. The doctor then has a legal duty of care to act within the standard of care accepted by the medical community. Unfortunately, between 1-3 infants per 1,000 births suffer a brain injury. While some brain injuries have only mild permanent impacts, in the worst cases, a child suffers a catastrophic brain injury.

Consulting an experienced Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer ensures your child’s rights and future care needs are protected.

What Is Fetal Distress?

Fetal distress is a broad term that describes signs that an unborn baby is suffering from an adverse change in medical status, such as a lack of oxygen to the brain. Without immediate medical intervention, the result can be brain damage with lasting harm. Fetal distress can occur at any time during pregnancy, but it is most common during labor and delivery, where it can develop very rapidly due to medical complications.

Signs of fetal distress include the following:

• Abnormal fetal heart rate, either a rapid or decelerating heart rate
• Lack of fetal movement
• Acidosis due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen)
• Meconium in the amniotic fluid
• A sudden drop in the mother’s blood pressure

Fetal distress can be caused by several complications, including placental abruption (the premature separation of the placenta), umbilical cord problems, maternal infections, or prolonged/obstructed labor.

Brain Injuries Caused by Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress

When a baby’s brain is deprived of oxygen for a significant amount of time during the birthing process, it causes anoxic brain injury.

Proper monitoring alerts medical staff to changes in the infant’s condition, including anoxia. When proper monitoring occurs and the staff reacts appropriately, prompt medical intervention can save the child from a catastrophic brain injury. Unfortunately, improper fetal monitoring can result in brain injuries such as the following:

• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
• Intraventricular hemorrhage, or bleeding inside the brain
• Periventricular leukomalacia, or damage to the brain’s white matter
• Cerebral Palsy
• Hearing or vision loss
• Coma or vegetative state
• Stillbirth

Rapid intervention is crucial at the first signs of fetal distress to prevent a catastrophic brain injury with permanent, life-altering harm to the child.

Understanding Fetal Distress Malpractice

When a healthcare provider fails to adequately monitor an unborn baby during the labor and delivery process, misinterprets monitor readings, fails to alert the physician to signs of fetal distress, or fails to act appropriately in a timely manner to address the problem, it is fetal distress malpractice.

Fetal distress malpractice can result in birth injuries, including catastrophic brain injury. Proving fetal distress malpractice occurred requires substantial evidence to demonstrate the following:

• A doctor/patient relationship was in place at the time the injury occurred
• The doctor or other provider owed a legal duty of care to the patient, requiring them to treat the patient at the medical industry’s approved standard of care
• They breached this duty through negligence
• The breach of duty caused the brain injury
• The infant and their family suffered damages from the injury

Damages in cases of fetal distress malpractice resulting in catastrophic brain injuries are substantial, including lifelong medical expenses, a parent’s lost earnings, special education and therapy needs, and catastrophic injury compensation for diminished quality of life, as well as a parent’s emotional anguish.

Proper fetal monitoring is not just a standard of care, it is a legal obligation, and failure to act can be grounds for a Phoenix birth injury attorney to seek full compensation for lifelong damages.