The focus today is on nurse liability with a baby’s HIE brain injury. To understand the context of this post you must know a little bit of a conversation that took place with a mother I spoke with regarding a birth injury investigation.
This mother, during her talk with me revealed that,” my nurse let me down during my labor and delivery.” For this mother she thought that she had made a connection with this nurse and she felt safe with her. But as the labor and delivery progressed and problems happened, she became worried because to her the nurse did not do all she could to help and advocate for mom. As a result of this mom was really hurt by this and I could tell that this still bothered her in retelling the story to me.
Nurse Liability With A Baby’s HIE Brain Injury
In the context of nurse liability with a baby’s HIE brain injury there are two main areas that I see as a birth injury lawyer. The first one is misreading the fetal heart strips. As a side, I am not talking about small misreads, I am talking about massive errors over a considerable amount of time. The second issue, which I will address in more detail below, is failing to notify or activate the chain of command when patient safety requires it to be done.
There are some members of the public who think that when a doctor is present a nurse must blindly rely on the doctor without thinking for themselves. This type of thinking is far from accurate. To put it another way, that thinking is just plain wrong.
A nurse has their own independent duty of care to the patient. In the context of labor and delivery this is to mom and baby. Nurses have their own training and skill and must act on this training and skill when treating patients. So, what this means is that if a nurse sees that the action of a doctor is putting their patient at risk, they must advocate and act within the standard of care for their patient (s). If this means using the chain of command, then so be it. Failure to do so, and acting outside the standard of care, will make for a strong argument of negligence if this failure leads to an injury.
To speak with me regarding your baby’s HIE brain injury at birth invite you to call me at my contact information below. It does not cost you initially to speak with me about your baby’s story.
Marcus B. Boston, Esq.
9701 Apollo Dr. Suite 100
Largo, Maryland 20774
301-850-4832
1-833-4 BABY HELP
