Parents Of Stillborn Baby Sue Physician For Malpractice In Use Of Vacuum Extractor During Childbirth

Each state has unique laws concerning medical malpractice or wrongful death cases resulting from a stillbirth. In certain states the father has no standing to file a claim, only the mother can file a case. In several states a mother is only able to pursue a claim for emotional harm due to the death of her child if she in addition sustained a physical injury out of the same act of malpractice that led to the stillbirth.

In one reported instance a man and a woman finally find one another, fall in love, and decide to marry and raise a family with each other. Their greatest desire is to have a child and so they start trying to conceive prior to the wedding. They do marry and they receive the long-for hoped news that the woman is expecting a baby. Their desire for having a family appears to be taking shape. They learn that the child is a boy. A baby shower is thrown and family and friends get invited. The couple picks out a name for their son. They begin getting ready for his arrival. They paint, decorate, and equip the baby’s room in the home.

The expectant mother took it as her responsibility to follow all the advice given to her by her doctor. She only ate and drank things that would provide healthy nutrients for her unborn child. She took prenatal vitamins. She attended all prenatal visits. She was tested during the pregnancy and was told that her baby was following a normal course of development. She did all she could and was reassured that her child was healthy.

When the mother got to the end of her term and the time had arrived for the baby to be born she was admitted to the hospital for a vaginal delivery. Once in the delivery room she discovered that she was not able to push the baby through the birth canal. Believing that she would be unable to give birth to the child naturally, she asked the doctor to deliver her baby via C-section.

Rather than understanding her concern and performing the C-section as the woman asked, the physician instead began a litany of ridiculing comments. The physician not only said that the mother was not trying as hard as she could but even referred to her as lazy and as a coward who only desired to run away from the normal pain of birthing a baby. The doctor said right to her that she would never be a good mother. Other testimony alleged that, as all this was taking place, the doctor’s attention was not on the patient or her unborn child, but on a nurse who was in the room and with whom the doctor was flirting.

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