If you have given birth to a child recently, you probably understand just how difficult it can be to gain entry into a maternity ward. That’s probably something that gave you a good feeling, as you wouldn’t want just anyone to waltz into that area and have a look at the newborns both because it can lead to the spread of germs and because it can provide an opportunity for someone to do something terrible and damaging. That’s why so many facilities with maternity wards have invested heavily in security systems and doors.
Most of the time, these doors and systems that require someone from the inside to let people in have worked as planned and they have provided protection to the newborns and new mothers that all of them needed. That said, technology is technology and it can malfunction. When that happens in close proximity to a maternity ward, the results can be disastrous. Sadly, that appears to be what happened to a girl in the United Kingdom who was born with severe disabilities as a result. Her case was recently publicized in an article published by The Telegraph.
The case involved a girl who is now 14 years old and who suffers from severe cognitive and physical problems and whose life expectancy has been shortened by an undetermined amount. When she was born in 1998, her mother experienced distress while in labor. When the overseeing doctor attempted to come to her aid, the security door to the maternity ward malfunctioned and the doctor was unable to reach the mother for a period of 15 minutes.
That turned out to be a truly terrible turn of events, as the infant was suffering from a lack of oxygen and asphyxia, and she was also stuck in the birth canal after her head ultimately emerged for another 10 minutes. All of these problems led to severe brain damage that has resulted in the conditions that the girl and her family deal with today. While the legal and healthcare systems in Great Britain are obviously different than the ones that exist here, the girl and her family were awarded a substantial amount of damages to help pay for her ongoing care.
This terribly sad case is an example of just how many different things can go horribly wrong when parents are giving birth to a child. This was clearly not the doctor’s fault, but was instead caused by a faulty door that in the United States could have led to liability on the part of both the hospital and the door manufacturer depending on the specifics of the situation. As most of us understand, people are rarely more vulnerable to extreme harm than when they are in the process of being born.
If your child was harmed while being delivered because of someone else’s mistake, contact the New York medical malpractice lawyers at The Fitzgerald Law Firm today to schedule a free initial consultation.