Today we will be discussing the importance of the early (24hr) head ultrasound when a baby has an HIE brain injury. For many families when their baby has suffered an HIE injury there are a lot of questions and certain tests are being performed they sometimes do not fully understand why those tests are being done.
The early head ultrasound can be extremely important when looking to give familie answers as to the cause of their baby’s HIE injury. From a medical/legal standpoint, the early results will go a long ways in putting the pieces together from a causation perspective as to the possible medical malpractice.
Why Is This Concept Of Causation Is So Important?
Whether there is a departure from the standard of care is initially the first step in the analysis of whether a valid medical malpractice claim will lie. With that said, causation can also be hotly disputed in these cases. One of the easiest ways to understand causation is simply, did the actions, or non-action of the person you are suing cause the injury? If the answer to that question is yes, then you can move forward. On the other hand, if the answer is no then your case will not succeed.
This is why when we perform a birth injury investigation for a family we do our best to have a good theory as to the cause of the HIE brain injury. What we do not want to happen is to get deep in a case and then realize that we do not have the causation element buttoned up, which will allow the defendant to move the fact finder to their side, and potentially win the case.
Importance Of Early (24hr) Head Ultrasound When Baby Has An HIE Brain Injury
One of the reasons why the early ultrasound is important is because it can help with causation. In a lot of cases when a baby has suffered an HIE injury, the defense will point to a possible stroke in utero as the cause of the injury. However, head ultrasound technology can help either confirm or refute that claim.
A head ultrasound can look at certain things in the brain. For example, the ultrasound an reveal whether there are brain bleeds/hemorrhaging. If within 24 hours there is bleeding in the brain or hemorrhaging present, an argument can be made that the injury to the brain is due to something that happened during pregnancy and the doctors, nurses, and hospital are not the cause of the injury.
This is why, during our initial investigation for families we want to know what do the scans and imaging reveal. These tests can be crucial to the success of a brith injury claim.
If you have more questions, what I invite you to do is to give me a call at my information below. I speak with families like yours regarding HIE brain injuries all the time and I would have no problem speaking with you about your baby’s story.
Marcus B. Boston, Esq.
9701 Apollo Dr. Suite 100
Largo, Maryland 20774
1-833-4 BABY HELP
