Should I sue?

Question

This was my second daughter and she got caught on my pelvic bone during labor. I had an ultrasound five days before and they estimated the weight at 8.5 pounds. My doctor finally induced me ( i was 11 days late by then). Well, she was TEN pounds, and got caught. I feel like he should have taken me sooner, and this might have been preventable. My daughter now has perminate nerve damage to her shoulder.

This was my 2nd daughter, and I pushed for over one hour with my first and she was 8.5 pounds.

Answer 1

Suing a physician is extremely difficult. You would have to have at least two physicians testify against your doctor who could prove that he was negligible. Also, not only would you have to bring suit against the physician, but also against the hospital and any staff assisting in the delivery, ultrasound technicians and pretty much anyone else who may have been involved your care.

Also, please understand that why you're understandably angry over the impingement, ultrasounds are only so reliable. Technicians and physicians take measurements on different areas of the image surface to estimate a baby's weight. The weight is exactly that, an estimate. If your physician had no other reason to expect complications, then he had was not negligible in waiting to induce at 41 weeks. Furthermore, no matter how routine a delivery is, there is a large chance for shoulder impingement in many cases, even in babies born under ten pounds.

If you truly feel you have a case, then I would contact an attorney who specializes in birth cases. Good luck. Oh, by the way, I can emphasize. My step son was also a large baby and he also suffered nerve impingement to the shoulder. He's now 11 and other than a slight decrease in range of motion, you can't tell.

Answer 2

That is a good quesiton for a lawyer. Remember the doc's have hefty malpractice insuarnce lawyers on their side, so get some council and make sure your case has potential before you persue it. What makes a 10 pounder bigger than a 7 pounder is FAT. Not really head or shoulder circumference. Her weight may or may not have been a contributing factor.
I am so sorry about your baby girl. Childbirth is full of "what if's".

Some 10 pounders slide right out, while some 7 pounders get their shoulders set wrong in the pelvis and have troubles moving down the birth canal. If the doc didn't have evidence of any problems with you, or the baby, or the baby's presentation, then the problem your daughter ran into during delivery can't be placed upon the doctor. Otherwise (for example) every woman who ended up with a C-section , who didn't want one, would be suing their doctors for not being able to forsee and prevent a problem that merely presented itself at birth.

I feel for you and your daughter of course, who has to carry this physical scar for life. But sometimes in emotional agony we look for someone to blame, when really, it's just what happened, and it can't be changed.

Answer 3

That is a tough question, I can understand your feelings completely. And I am very sorry to hear about your daughter. But the truth is that shoulder dystocia ("getting caught" in the birth canal) is something that can happen to even 8.5 pound babies. Also, many women deliver 10 or 11 lb. babies without having this problem. Sometimes a woman's birth canal is small (called cephalopelvic disproportion). I don't know what the case was with your daughter, and I don't know if it can be proved that 5 days made any difference.

More importantly, are they sure the nerve damage is permanent? Many babies recover by 3-4 months of age. You can learn more about brachial plexus injuries, find support groups, and locate research studies that she may be a candidate for here:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brachial_plexus/brachial_plexus.htm

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 4

Being that my wife went through 6 pregnancies, 3 natural and 3 c-section, we have found out a few things about ultrasound (new & old). The doctor can only get a guess on the size of a child. Our first daughter was thought to weigh 7 lbs and she came out only 5 lbs. There has also been women who have had kids that weigh more than 10 lbs, naturally, without a problem. The 11 day wait after your due date is not out of the norm. Some doctors wait up to 2 weeks. If you still feel you have a case contact a lawyer.

Answer 5

Honey, these things happen. There is NO accurate way for doctors to judge the size of the baby - it is guess work. There is no way he could have known that she was going to be 10 pounds, especially after you had an 8.5 lb baby previously. If your doctor is responsible, then all doctors should have to pass a psychic exam before becoming clinicians. He is not a psychic. He made his best guess. THere is NO technology out there to tell a baby's size prior to birth. You dont have grounds for a lawsuit. And by the way, it is for these reasons that OB/GYNs cannot even afford malpractice insurance anymore and many counties dont even have them anymore! Labor is dangerous. Period. If something happens, it's not usually the doctor's fault. 100 years ago 10% of women either died in child birth or lost the child in childbirth. We will end up back there if we hold OBs accountable for nature. It is not his fault you had a big baby and you were as late as you were (by the way, you would have been later if he hadnt intervened and that baby would have been bigger!) and its not his fault he's not a psychic. He's a doctor, not a psychic.

Answer 6

i don't know if i would sue the dr or not. dr's are not perfect and they cannot forsee everything that may or may not happen with a delivery. 11 days overdue is not out of the norm...a lot of dr's will give you up to 2 wks past due before they induce. women have complications with delivery all the time and sometimes its something that cannot be helped. when i was delivering my 2nd child they had to do an episiotomy b/c his cord was wrapped around his neck. he had a hard time breathing when he first came out and they had to keep him on oxygen and work with him for a while before he finally came around. he's now add/ocd. this could possibly be caused by the lack of oxygen when he was born. he will have these problems for the rest of his life but i would never consider sueing my ob doctor b/c there's no way she could have ever known that this was going to happen. now, 6 yrs later she is possibly having to leave the county i live in b/c she can no longer afford the malpractice insurance due to all of the medical lawsuits in this area!!! i hate this b/c she is my ob dr. she delivered all 3 of my children and has been my dr for 12 yrs. i don't want to have to get a new dr b/c people think they should sue for everything that goes wrong. they are doctors...not God!! they're not perfect and if anyone thinks for a min that a dr would intentionally cause an innocent child to have a permanant birth defect, they're just wrong!!! just seriously think about what you're doing before you do it. you can always sign your child up for disability if she has that much trouble with the nerve damage.

Answer 7

Serusly if u sue i will hunt u down and do more then a nerve damage and ill tell you why?

u shuld be happy just becuz the doctor was able to to help u deliver a good "healthy" baby. Imagine if u had no doctor there, u were stuck in some part of Africa where pple would wish for even a nurse... never mind a ****** ultrasound....


Neways if u need the money there better stuff to sue for. Did u here the one few years ago. Lady tripped in furniture store from a kid running around. She got hurt sued the store for 2 million or 20 million. Funny thing was the kid that was running around was her kid....

Answer 8

That is tragic. They did an ultra sound on me before my second was born and thought she would be 11 lbs and she was only 8. Ultra sounds can only measure what they can see - they take the circumference of the head and stuff to get a best guess - but the medical profession can only do so much. My kid had the head of an 11 pounder, believe me - but they don't have all the answers.

I honestly don't know what you should do - but for those who rely upon the medical profession it is getting harder and harder for drs to practice with the high risk of suits over stuff that frankly they had no way of knowing. I myself had 3rd degree tearing due to a mis-call on the part of my mid-wife, which she could have avoided, but she made an honest, natural mistake. That doesn't mean I should sue.

Now, of course, I healed no problem - it is a different thing if you will require extra money to care for a child injured during delivery. If that would be the case, you really need to carefully consider how much extra you will need and to talk to a lawyer.

Answer 9

I think you should not sue because ultrasounds are not perfect they give you a glimpse of what is going on....estimated at 8.5 means they were not sure but best guess was 8.5. How was she caught? Was it c section or vag? If you believe in the god line of bullsh it then god was the one that choose for complications to arise and punished you and your daughter, I don't believe in god so I doubt this was why. Sometimes sh it happens deal with it and move on. I don't think the doctor was clairvoyant and could see into the future to know the baby was bigger then expected, nor do I think he forced the babe to get caught.

Answer 10

My opinion is no. Ultrasound is *not* an accurate way to measure a baby's weight. If you were so sure there was a problem, you should have insisted on being induced earlier because there is no way the doctor could have known. (This is based on the information above; if you have reason to believe that the doctor acted inappropriately *during* the birth, you didn't indicate that above...)