A couple from Waco, Texas has filed a Texas birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit that also challenges the cap on medical malpractice damages in Texas. The medical malpractice lawsuit alleges: “The staff at Ascension Providence Hospital was negligent in failing to adequately respond with interventions based on the fetal monitoring hours before delivery; and failing to emergently deliver the child. Had the standard of care been met and F.H. would have been delivered urgently and would have avoided his resulting neurological injuries and high risk of future neurodevelopmental delays…”
The 30-year-old pregnant woman, who had a history of chronic high blood pressure, obesity, and bleeding during the first and second trimesters, had gone to the hospital on October 6, 2023 at approximately 6 p.m. for induction of labor due to fetal growth restriction and abnormal dopplers. On October 7, 2023, between 1:20 p.m. and 3:40 p.m., the fetal monitoring strips were not adequately graphing the baby’s heart rate, according to the lawsuit. A certified midwife performed a vaginal exam at 2:45 p.m. At 4:05 p.m., the woman was not on the monitor while the midwife was at her bedside, at which time she progressed from active labor to pushing.
Shortly afterwards, there were poor tracings of the baby’s heart tones that were recorded by a nurse to be in the 60s to 115 range. At 4:42 p.m., the baby’s heart rate was in the 80s, and the baby was delivered about four minutes later by vaginal delivery: “The labor and delivery team documented that fetal heart tones were in the 70, 80, and 90s during the pushing phase of labor but did not initiate internal monitoring to further evaluate the fetal state. Fetal growth restricted babies have higher risk of fetal intolerance in labor. The poor fetal tolerance can lead to increased operative deliveries and cesarean sections. Continuous fetal monitoring during labor is prudent, especially in growth restricted babies.”
The newborn was transferred to Dell Children’s Hospital where he received brain cooling and remained in the neonatal intensive care unit for 17 days: “He is at high risk of neurodevelopmental delays and neurocognitive deficits that can only be diagnosed and accurately measured as he matures and grows older.”
The Texas birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit challenges Texas’ cap on damages under the Seventh Amendment: “The provisions violate the Seventh Amendment by altering the jury’s factual determination of appropriate compensatory damages, a part of the function of juries at common law since before and at the time our Constitution and Bill of Rights were ratified, and thereby rendering the jury verdict merely advisory and effectively abrogating the substance of the common-law right of trial by jury.”
If you or your baby suffered serious harm as a result of medical negligence in Texas or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Texas medical malpractice attorney, or a medical malpractice attorney in your state, who may investigate your birth injury medical malpractice claim for you and represent you and your baby in a birth injury medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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