My friends have a 7 monhs old girl and after several urinary tract infections they did an ultrasound on her and found she only has one kidney and no uterus. When my GF was pregnant, she had two ultrasounds done {the big ones, when they measure everything and look if the baby has everything she should have} and they never found a problem. But missing kidney IS a huge problem and they should've found it. Should my friends sue the hospital or the technician that did the scan?
2007-12-15 13:24:40 · 8 answers · asked by Matahari 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Mother, they are supposed to see these birth defects BEFORE baby is born, that is the point of having an ultrasound exams. If they knew about it, their little girl wouldn't have several other problems now, because they tried all kinds of medications to cure the UTI and it could've dammaged the only kidney she has.
2007-12-15 13:33:52 · update #1
NO!!!!! Why do you think hospital and doctors cost are outrageous? They have no liability in that babies birth defect.
2007-12-15 13:30:32 · answer #1 · answered by Mother 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
The hospital didn't cause the birth defects. And if the baby had a UTI, antibiotics are the only way to treat her so they would still have had to given her antibiotics even knowing she only had one kidney. If you had an expert witness be able to prove that more damage was done to the baby and hurt her kidney for giving the antibiotics and there would have been an alternative to prevent that, had they known, then maybe she would have a case, but you don't even know if her kidney is damaged. A negligence claim requires 4 elements to be proved. You must prove that the hospital had a duty, and that they breached that duty, and because of that breach, they were the proximate cause of damages. It's not clear (by the information you have given) if there are damages though. (What are all these other problems?) And medical malpractice claims are very expensive to prosecute because of the litigation costs and hiring expert witnesses. Unlike other forms of negligence claims, all the elements must be backed up by a competant expert that can testify to the scientific elements.
But most importantly, I hope your friend's baby is okay. Good luck.
2007-12-15 13:49:27 · answer #2 · answered by Eisbär 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think you're overestimating just what can be determined from an ultrasound. They can't even be sure if it's a boy or a girl. There's no reliable way to determine birth defects like a missing uterus or kidney in utero. There was no way to really know these things until they just found them now.
2007-12-15 13:41:14 · answer #3 · answered by Rebeckah 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sue them for what? What would the outcome have been if they had found the birth defect in utero? The birth defect was not caused by the hospital...
2007-12-15 13:35:12 · answer #4 · answered by Ti 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I have never heard of doing internal organ tests with ultrasound before, I did hear a few yrs back that certain ultra sound tests maybe harmful to unborn babies so that may be a test they didnt do because of that.Might want to ask a doctor.
2007-12-15 13:51:43 · answer #5 · answered by Joe F 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Was the mother considered high risk for those conditions?
2007-12-15 22:42:42 · answer #6 · answered by Gray Wanderer 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure, so the cost of everyone elses healtcare can go up! in my opinion they should be happy shes alive, medicine is not a perfect science. but whatever i guess its their PAY DAY! who am i to say?
2007-12-15 13:31:47 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think you're friends should sue the technician who did the scan. He/she should of found out those problems before they're child was born.
2007-12-15 13:33:14 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋