Author: YostLaw

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy

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Cerebral palsy (CP) occurs in nearly 1 in every 500 births, making it is the most prevalent cause of motor function impairment. A disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture, CP is a neurological condition caused by brain damage which is usually suffered before, during or soon after a baby is born. CP may also cause seizure disorder (epilepsy), swallowing, speech and eye movement problems, and can cause intellectual disabilities.  Premature birth significantly increases an infant’s risk of CP.  There are several different types of CP, with each type classified according to the type of body movement and posture problem present. Ataxic cerebral palsy is the rarest type of cerebral palsy and involves the entire body.

Ataxic CP causes problems with:

  • Balance
  • Precise Movements (may reach too far or too close to touch objects)
  • Coordination (may walk with feet unusually far apart)
  • Hand control (may have trouble buttoning clothing, writing or using scissors)

If there is birth trauma during labor and delivery, it is possible for the baby to suffer from a brain injury due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Medical staff is expected to monitor the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contraction rate to ensure the safety of the baby and avoid birth injury. Medical negligence in this area could be the reason why you child suffers from cerebral palsy.

Motor functioning impairment greatly affects quality of life. Additionally, the cost of care for a child with brain damage is high. If your child’s brain injury was caused by a medical mistake at birth, or caused by an extremely premature birth which healthcare providers negligently failed to prevent (such as a failure to diagnose and treat preeclampsia), the experienced Birth Injury lawyers at The Yost Legal Group are here to help.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. When you call, you will speak with a Baltimore Birth Injury attorney with real experience absolutely free. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

 

Hypoxic Brain Injury- Intubation

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Tracheal intubation (TI), usually simply referred to as intubation, is a procedure performed by medical professionals in the setting of respiratory failure and shock. This procedure involves inserting a flexible plastic tube into the patient’s trachea (windpipe) to maintain an open airway, assist with breathing and can also serve as a channel through which to administer certain drugs.

Although intubation is a life-saving intervention, life-threatening complications may arise if this complex procedure is not done correctly. Negligent placement of the endotracheal tube into the esophagus, instead of the trachea, is a major cause of cardiac arrest and brain damage associated with intubation.  If this mistake is not immediately recognized and the tubing withdrawn from the patient’s esophagus, the patient’s airway remains blocked and hypoxic brain injury or anoxic brain injury can result from the asphyxiation caused by negligent intubation.

Patients must have a continuous supply of oxygen to the brain in order to survive. If the oxygen supply is interrupted, even for a short amount of time, the functioning of the brain is disturbed immediately and irreversible damage can quickly follow. Despite intubation guidelines and years of training in airway management, medical mistakes continue to be made, causing catastrophic complications to arise.

If you or a loved one feel you are the victim of a medical mistake, contact The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (800-403-7259). When you call, you will speak with an experienced Baltimore Medical Malpractice attorney absolutely FREE.

The attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced, caring professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. Call us today to receive a free, confidential consultation about your possible case. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

 

Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy

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Cerebral palsy, or CP, is one of the most common birth injuries associated with medical negligence in the United States. This serious medical condition is the result of an injury to the baby’s brain, including brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery. Cerebral palsy can be categorized into different forms, based on the degree of brain damage and the area/areas of the body affected.  Forms of cerebral palsy include dyskinetic CP, spastic CP, and ataxic CP.

Dyskinetic CP results from damage to the basal ganglia of the brain (responsible for regulating voluntary movement) and is associated with a number of symptoms that cause muscle tone to fluctuate between being loose and tight. The different forms of dyskinesia include, dystonia, athetosis, and chorea, and result from damage to slightly different structures within the basal ganglia.

Characteristics of dystonia include painful muscle contractions, causing slow twisting or repetitive movement, and a disabling, rigid posture. Athetosis is characterized by slow, continuous, involuntary, writhing movements that may cause those affected to appear restless. People with chorea experience brief, abrupt involuntary movements and may appear fidgety.

It is the medical staff’s responsibility to consistently monitor the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contraction rate. When signs of fetal distress go unnoticed, the baby can suffer from oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery, which is an obstetrical emergency. Consequences of such negligence can result in permanent brain injury, such as dyskinetic CP, when the baby suffers brain damage from lack of oxygen (hypoxia or anoxia) during labor and delivery.

The cost of care for a child with brain damage, is very high. If your child’s brain injury was caused by a medical mistake at birth, the experienced Birth Injury lawyers at The Yost Legal Group are here to help.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. When you call, you will speak with a Baltimore Birth Injury attorney with real experience absolutely free. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.ysys

Fetal Acidosis

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Before a baby is born, the fetus is completely dependent on the mother’s blood supply to receive oxygen and nutrients. These necessities are delivered from mother to child through the umbilical cord and placenta. If proper care is not taken by a medical professional during the labor and delivery process, the baby’s oxygen supply can become compromised. When a baby is suffering from oxygen deprivation, brain cells begin to die off and brain damage can be irreversible.

Fetal acidosis is a symptom of serious brain injuries caused by a severe lack of oxygen to a baby during labor and delivery (such as, Cerebral Palsy (CP), Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), and seizure disorders). Fetal acidosis is diagnosed by a lab test, (blood cord gas test) performed in the first few minutes of a newborn’s life, analyzing the pH level of the blood drawn from the umbilical cord artery and veins.  If the pH level of the cord blood sample is 7.0 or less, the baby has a low (acidic) cord pH and is diagnosed with fetal acidosis.  A low cord pH at birth is one of the most common indicators of a baby’s lack of oxygen during labor and delivery.

Birth injuries due to low oxygen supply (hypoxia) or no oxygen supply (anoxia, or asphyxiation) can be avoided by good medical care during labor and delivery, including routine monitoring of the baby (fetal movement and heart rate), the mother’s vital signs (maternal heart rate and maternal blood pressure), and uterine contractions during labor (how long the contractions last, how strong the contractions are and how close together the contractions occur).

If your child’s brain injury was caused by a medical mistake, the experienced Birth Injury lawyers at The Yost Legal Group are here to help.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. When you call, you will speak with a Baltimore Birth Injury attorney with real experience absolutely free. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

Perforation of Small Intestine During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

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Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, commonly referred to as a “lap choly,” is a procedure that involves removing the gallbladder. A patient may need removal if the gallbladder is full of gallstones (cholelithiasis), inflamed, or infected (cholecystitis). When a lap choly is needed, laparoscopic techniques are used to perform this minimally invasive surgery with the assistance of a video camera and several thin instruments.

The laparoscopic incisions, each one about ½” in size, limit the surgeon’s view of the patient’s abdomen. This limited view during surgical dissection and electrocautery can be associated with serious complications. Several factors may play a role in causing these injuries, such as the complexity of the case and the experience of the surgeon.

Although injury to the common bile duct (the tube that carries bile from the gallbladder to the small intestine) is one of the most serious complications of gall bladder surgery, injury to the small bowel (small intestine) can occur as a result of a medical provider’s incorrect use of surgical tools during laparoscopic cholecystectomy.  Perforation or laceration of the small intestine during lap choly can occur when the nearby wall of the small intestine is cut by a surgical tool or burned during electrocautery.  If left undetected and not quickly repaired, a hole in the small intestine can cause bile to leak into the abdomen and can lead to life-threatening infection (abscess, peritonitis and sepsis). The duodenum (upper section of the small intestine) or jejunum (the middle portion of the small intestine) are the two most likely sections of the small intestine to be negligently damaged during laparoscopic gall bladder surgery.

Before laparoscopy is performed on a patient, the patient must be properly evaluated, including a full clinical history and thorough clinical examination. If you would like to discuss your potential claim arising from an intestinal injury during laparoscopy, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

Spastic Cerebral Palsy at Birth

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Spastic cerebral palsy is a permanent loss of muscle control caused by an injury to the brain resulting from a variety of causes, one of which is a lack of oxygen to the baby during labor and delivery.

Spastic CP is characterized by involuntary movement of the arms and legs, uncontrolled muscle spasms and can also affect the muscles controlling speech and swallowing.  Spastic CP can affect all four limbs, neck and torso (tetraplegia), both arms and both legs (quadriplegia), or only one arm or leg (monoplegia) but most commonly affects the arm and leg on one side of the body, only (hemiplegia).  Less commonly, spastic quadriplegia can affect three limbs (triplegia).

Poor coordination and balance, a complete inability to relax tightened muscles, difficulty walking, talking and eating are all common complications of spastic CP.  For those who suffer from this neurological disorder, affected joints become very stiff and hard to move.  Over time, the affected arms or legs may become extremely painful and interfere with the ability to function independently or even to sit in a comfortable position

Birth injuries, such as spastic cerebral palsy, can be the direct result of medical negligence.  It is important for medical providers to consistently monitor the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contraction rate to identify if the baby is experiencing a lack of oxygen during the entire course of labor and delivery. If a complication, such as a very low (bradycardia) or very high (tachycardia) fetal heart rate is identified in a timely manner, medical providers can respond immediately to fetal distress.  A baby’s lack of oxygen during labor and delivery is an obstetrical emergency and can result in permanent brain injury such as spastic CP.

There are a number of treatments available for the management of spastic CP. However, the cost of care for a child with cerebral palsy, or any brain damage, is very high. If your child’s brain injury was caused by a medical mistake, the experienced Birth Injury lawyers at The Yost Legal Group are here to help.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation. When you call, you will speak with a Baltimore Birth Injury attorney with real experience absolutely free. At The Yost Legal Group, there is no fee or expense unless you recover.

Cardiac Arrest During Spinal Block

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While general anesthesia is used for many surgical procedures, and local anesthetics are usually given by injection into a very specific part of the body that needs to be numbed, an injection of numbing medication into a patient’s back allows a whole region of the lower body to be pain-free without putting the patient to sleep during some abdominal surgeries, leg and feet surgeries or other lower body procedures, such as urinary tract procedures. Spinal block is also the preferred method of controlling pain during labor and delivery.

Spinal anesthesia is performed by an anesthesiologist (a doctor who specializes in administering all types of anesthesia to patients) who injects the medication just outside or just inside the membrane surrounding the spinal cord.  If the numbing medication is injected just outside of the membrane that holds the spinal fluid, it is known as an epidural injection.  If the anesthetic is injected directly into the spinal fluid it is known as a spinal injection. Epidural injection is placed using a small, soft tube (catheter) and can be injected into the patient’s back at either the upper (cervical), middle (thoracic) or lower (lumbar) region.  Spinal injection uses a needle to enter the spinal fluid and can only be inserted in the lower (lumbar) spine to avoid puncturing the spinal cord with the sharp needle.

Epidural and spinal anesthesia work fast to numb the abdomen, legs and feet by blocking nerve signals. A patient will begin to feel the effects of an epidural or spinal injection within just a few minutes and will typically experience complete lower body numbness, and no pain, within twenty minutes.

Handled properly, epidural and spinal blocks offer anesthesia quickly and efficiently. However, if the injection is given in the wrong place (wrong site) or if too much medication is injected (an overdose) respiratory and cardiac arrest can occur. For example, if the anesthesia spreads above or below the intended spinal level, it can block nerves responsible for signaling the heart to beat and cause a dangerous slowing of the heartbeat (arrhythmia or bradycardia), a severe drop in blood pressure (hypotension) or a cardiac arrest.  Similarly, if the medication is incorrectly injected into a blood vessel it enters the bloodstream, travels throughout the body (systemic toxicity) and can interfere with the patient’s heart rate, breathing and blood pressure. This may cause heart damage, a brain injury or even death, by significantly affect the following:

  • Heart
  • Breathing
  • Brain function

Because of the risks of life-threatening complications during epidural and spinal anesthesia, equipment for emergency care (such as a defibrillator and injections of vasopressor medications) must be readily available and the attending healthcare providers must be prepared to immediately recognize and treat these complications. If you have been injured as a result of an epidural or spinal block the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation.

At The Yost Legal Group, you will never pay an attorney’s fee unless we achieve a recovery for you. We don’t get paid until you do.

Uterine Rupture and Birth Injury

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Uterine rupture in pregnancy can be life-threatening for the mother and baby. Signs and symptoms associated with uterine rupture should be identified by a medical provider through careful monitoring of the mother and baby during labor and delivery, and include:

  • Significant uterine bleeding
  • Severe chest pain or abdominal pain
  • Falling blood pressure in the mother
  • Abnormal or absent pattern of uterine contractions (visible on the fetal monitoring strip)
  • Abnormal fetal heart rate (visible on the fetal monitoring strip)

If the uterus ruptures, the baby may not be getting the amount of oxygen needed to survive. This obstetrical emergency requires an immediate caesarian section (C-section) delivery. If the symptoms of uterine rupture are not recognized and immediately treated by medical providers, the complete (anoxia) or partial (hypoxia) interruption in the baby’s supply of oxygen can cause permanent brain damage.

Hypoxic and anoxic brain injuries can cause disabilities such as cerebral palsy, delays in development and seizure disorders. If you would like to discuss your child’s potential brain damage claim arising from a uterine rupture during labor and delivery, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation.

At The Yost Legal Group, you will never pay an attorney’s fee unless we achieve a recovery for you. We don’t get paid until you do.

Placenta Previa and Hypoxic Brain Injury

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Placenta previa occurs when the placenta lies low in the uterus and partially or completely covers the cervix.  When this happens, the placenta is lying between the fetus and the birth canal, effectively blocking the baby’s delivery. Although placenta previa is quite common in the early weeks and months of pregnancy, it typically resolves as the pregnancy progresses and the placenta moves up and away from the cervix as the uterus expands.

However, placenta previa does not always resolve itself. It affects about 1 in 200 births, at which time it can create the risk of severe bleeding (hemorrhage) in the mother and lack of oxygen to the baby (hypoxia). When placenta previa is present near the end of pregnancy it almost always requires cesarean (c-section) delivery of the baby.

Placenta previa should always be suspected when bright red vaginal bleeding occurs during pregnancy, at which time an ultrasound should be ordered and the condition can be diagnosed by the ultrasound images.  If ultrasound confirms placenta previa is the cause of vaginal bleeding during pregnancy, the proper course of treatment is to admit the patient to the hospital for monitoring and bedrest. If the bleeding does not stop, or if the fetal heartrate monitor indicates the baby is in distress, the pregnant mother will remain hospitalized and may receive blood transfusions and other treatments until the baby is delivered.

Lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain due to a ruptured placenta previa can cause serious brain damage. Birth asphyxia, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and cerebral palsy are brain injuries that are caused by oxygen deprivation. The treatment for these complications is limited due to the fact that most brain damage is permanent.

Our experienced attorneys fight for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the negligence of others.  If you would like to discuss your family’s potential claim arising from a placenta previa birth injury, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination. For a free consultation, please call us at 1-800-YOSTLAW.

Perinatal Hypoxia and Blindness in Newborns

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According to the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information), damage to the brain is the most common cause of visual impairment in children in developed countries. Blindness caused by brain injury during a baby’s labor and delivery (the perinatal phase of birth) occurs when the baby’s oxygen supply is severely interrupted for a long enough period of time to cause damage to the brainstem or visual cortex (also called the occipital lobe), which are the parts of the brain primarily responsible for eyesight.

Not only can perinatal hypoxia and asphyxia (shortages of oxygen) cause blindness (cortical blindness), but oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery causes other severe birth injuries, such as cerebral palsy (CP) and other neurologic disabilities in children.   These injuries may have been the result of poor fetal monitoring or a lack of discovery of potential birth complications by medical providers.

Cortical (or cerebral) blindness and cerebral palsy cannot be cured but treatment will very often improve a child’s capabilities and in general, the earlier treatment begins the better chances are that children will overcome developmental disabilities.

If you would like to discuss your child’s potential birth claim arising from cortical blindness or CP, the attorneys at Yost Legal Group are experienced professionals ready to investigate your claim with compassion and determination.

Call The Yost Legal Group today at 1-800-YOST-LAW (967-8529) for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation.

At The Yost Legal Group, you will never pay an attorney’s fee unless we achieve a recovery for you. We don’t get paid until you do.

 

 

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