Fetal Distress Ignored, Claims Illinois Stillbirth Lawsuit

A recent medical malpractice lawsuit filed in Illinois District Court alleges the wrongful death of the plaintiffs’ infant son was caused by negligence on the part of the attending doctor and midwife. The claim, filed individually by the parents and as special administer of the estate of the decedent, arises under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The defendant health care providers rendered labor and post-delivery medical services to the mother plaintiff and her now deceased child, who passed away just five days after birth at Richland Memorial Hospital in Illinois.

Prolonged labor aided by vacuum extraction

According to allegations leveled in the Illinois still born lawsuit, the 26-year-old mother was admitted to the hospital at full-term to deliver her child on March 18, 2012. Pitocin was administered to augment contractions and help speed up the labor. As the labor failed to progress normally, defendant Rise C. Hatten, M.D was called in to the delivery room for assistance. Dr. Hatten then applied a vacuum extractor to help deliver the child, who according to external fetal heart tracings had showed a fetal heart rate pattern consistent with a healthy baby.

However, roughly one hour prior to delivery of the infant, the child’s heart rate began showing signs of fetal distress, with variable decelerations. This worrying pattern persisted until delivery of the little boy on March 19 by vacuum extraction.  Medical records indicate that the child was essentially born brain dead, or stillborn, with APGAR scores of 0/0/0 at 1, 5 and 10 minutes after birth. He was transferred to a neonatal care unit where he was diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy, caused by extended oxygen deprivation during the labor and delivery.

Signs of fetal distress allegedly ignored

The defendants are accused of several transgressions and acts of negligence during the delivery of the plaintiff’s child, including:

• Failing to perform intrauterine “resuscitation” maneuvers such as discontinuing Pitocin, or monitoring oxygen delivery to the mother
• Failing to perform an emergency cesarean section in a timely manner to prevent hypoxia-related injury to the infant
• Ignoring symptoms of fetal distress and ominous fetal heart tracings
• Causing the death of their infant child through improper and unskilled medical care

The parents contend that as a direct cause of the defendant’s actions and omissions during the delivery, they have been deprived of their child’s love, comfort, affection, happiness, companionship, society, parent-child relationship and future earnings and benefits.

Baby suffers severe hypoxia and brain death

The court filing includes expert testimony provided by Larry P Griffin, MD, FACOG, who finds that the defendant’s actions in the care of the plaintiff “deviated from acceptable standards of care.” Dr. Griffin stated that Pitocin should have been discontinued and the baby delivered via emergency C-section. He further opines that these deviations resulted in the “severe hypoxia experience by the fetus… in labor resulting in severe metabolic acidosis, leading to his untimely death.”

The plaintiffs are suing on a number of counts including negligence, survival and family expense and are seeking compensation for their current and future financial and emotional losses following the loss of their infant son.

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