Your New Orleans OB/GYN should have evaluated your risk factors and attempted to assess whether your baby was large for its gestational age, a condition called macrosomia. In cases where expectant mothers experience gestational diabetes, begin pregnancy obesity or gain excessive weight during the pregnancy, have a history of macrosomia, or have other risk factors for developing a baby who is too large to be delivered through the birth canal, ultrasounds can be used to estimate fetal size. When macrosomia is suspected, nonstress tests are used to periodically monitor your baby’s health as your due date approaches. When a baby is too large to fit through the mother’s birth canal, both mother and baby are at higher risk for injuries, including shoulder dystocia for the baby, and emergency C-section for the delivery. If you displayed risk factors that your physician didn’t evaluate properly and you or your child experienced injury from…Read More
Difficult deliveries in New Orleans always carry a risk of injury to a newborn and its mother, and one of the more common complications of a delivery is Shoulder Dystocia, where the baby’s head is able to exit the birth canal, but one shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s public bone. Because of the risk of compression of the umbilical cord, Shoulder Dystocia is an emergency that must be corrected quickly, otherwise there are risks of oxygen deprivation (hypoxia), which can lead to cerebral palsy and even more serious problems. But in taking steps to assist the baby through the birth canal, additional injuries can result. Damage to the nerve cluster in the shoulder, called the brachial plexus, can cause conditions like Erb’s Palsy, which can leave your child’s arm paralyzed. Expensive interventions like surgery or long term physical therapy may be required to regain some or all function, but not all children…Read More
When a pregnant woman’s blood glucose levels remain consistently high during the pregnancy, she has gestational diabetes. While the risks to a developing baby are not usually as severe as other conditions may cause, one serious risk is that the extra glucose available to the fetus will result in a baby so large it can’t fit through the birth canal. For women in New Orleans who intended to deliver naturally, and who intended to deliver their subsequent children without a C-section, untreated gestational diabetes can represent a significant injury to them. Women count on their physicians to diagnose and treat common medical conditions during pregnancy so every precaution can be taken to protect their babies. Because gestational diabetes is so common, testing should be a routine part of your prenatal care. If your test results showed markers for gestational diabetes and your doctor simply missed it, you may have grounds for a…Read More
Babies who are born prematurely face a high risk of complications from a variety of factors. For one, your newborn’s lungs may not yet be mature enough to deliver oxygen to their brain, creating the potential for brain damage and lifetime disability and developmental delays. Pre-term babies’ hearts are also often immature, with persistent openings between the heart’s blood vessels. The condition, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), can lead to heart failure. For these reasons and many other potential pre-term complications, doctors are required by law to fully assess maternal health and take precautions to limit the risk of premature birth. From bed rest orders, to sutures applied early in the pregnancy to maintain the integrity of the cervix, to drugs that can be administered when there are signs of pre-term labor, doctors have an arsenal of tools at their disposal to protect both mother and baby from the risks associated with…Read More
Premature births carry enormous risks for newborns, including internal bleeding and necrotizing enterocolitis, a bowel infection common in pre-term babies. While medical professionals are supposed to assess expectant mothers for problems that may lead to a premature birth, and take whatever steps are necessary to reduce the risk, problems with maternal health are too often overlooked by busy doctors and their staff. When your doctor in the New Orleans area missed important health information that resulted in a premature birth and internal bleeding in your baby, you may be eligible for compensation based on a medical malpractice claim. The only way to know for sure is to consult with experienced New Orleans birth injury attorneys who can properly evaluate your case and help you understand your options going forward. At The Gertler Law Firm, we provide everyone with a free, confidential consultation with an experienced attorney who understands the struggles that…Read More
If your baby suffered from oxygen deprivation, known as hypoxia, during delivery in New Orleans and you believe your physician either failed to act, or took incorrect steps to prevent or treat the situation, you may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim. These cases are especially tragic when the victim of negligent or reckless healthcare practitioners are newborn babies, who may face a lifetime of disabilities or developmental delays as a result of carelessness during delivery. At The Gertler Law Firm, our attorneys are birth injury and medical malpractice experts, and can fully evaluate the facts of your case to give you a true picture of your situation. When we help parents with a hypoxic brain injury at birth in the New Orleans area, we know that we aren’t just representing you, but that we are also giving voice to your baby, and protecting others who may be under that doctor’s care…Read More
Medical mistakes are a common cause of Cerebral Palsy in newborns in New Orleans. Doctors and hospitals who fail to properly diagnose illnesses in the mother, provide timely Cesarean sections, appropriately plan for delivery of babies who may be too large for vaginal delivery, or who don’t detect problems like prolapsed umbilical cords may create conditions where the baby’s brain is starved of oxygen, resulting in lifelong deficits in motor function and coordination. Cerebral palsy occurs in as many as four out of 1,000 births in the United States, and while not every case represents medical errors, in too many instances, faster responses, better planning, or different delivery approaches would spare a family and a child a lifetime of disability. If you believe that your doctor or hospital in New Orleans made mistakes that led to hypoxia during pregnancy or delivery and Cerebral Palsy in your child, you may have grounds to…Read More
When doctors in New Orleans fail to deliver the highest quality medical care to their patients, injuries and even death can result. When the victim is a baby who is harmed by delays in treatment after fetal distress was obvious, a joyous event can become devastating as families endure the emotional roller coaster of intensive medical interventions for their baby, and try to deal with the financial costs associated. Birth injuries that harm babies are some of the most significant medical errors families can experience, because they can rob a person of a lifetime of potential, and saddle families with outstanding burdens for decades to come. There is no amount of money that can truly compensate a family when it comes to injuries a newborn has received, but when healthcare professionals fail to act in a timely way to prevent injury, it is important that your child’s rights and future are…Read More
The costs associated with emergency healthcare in New Orleans have the potential to bankrupt families, and that’s never more true than when the victim is a newborn who was injured during birth. When your doctor’s negligence in delaying necessary procedures like a C-section resulted in injury to your baby, you should take every step to protect your financial well being and ensure that your child will have access to all the medical resources they’ll need to heal and develop as normally as possible. At The Gertler Law Firm, we work with families who have suffered injuries through negligence, incompetence, or recklessness in the practice of medicine. While the stories that families bring to us are often heartbreaking, we know that by taking a stand, their efforts help ensure that dangerous doctors will be held accountable, and children’s futures will be protected. When your baby has been hurt by a negligent doctor in…Read More
Erb’s palsy is a form of paralysis caused by damage to the nerves connecting the shoulder to the spine, in a region called the brachial plexus. It is a common birth injury that can be caused when a baby is pulled from the birth canal, or when the baby is too large for easy passage through the birth canal and experiences shoulder dystocia. Doctors in New Orleans, however well trained and intentioned, make mistakes. From failure to properly diagnose and treat gestational diabetes and fetal macrosomia to delays in treatment when fetal distress was evident during delivery, when it comes to birth injuries like Erb’s palsy, the families experience genuine, tangible harm when their healthcare professionals let them down. Families of babies with Erb’s palsy are often in a position of needing to pay for medical care for decades to come. They may also wish to help prevent others from being…Read More
