Ohio Meconium Aspiration Lawyer
If your newborn appears blue and limp and has difficulty breathing, your baby may have meconium aspiration. When a problem such as meconium aspiration arises during birth, you put your trust in healthcare providers to ensure your baby is well cared for and safe. However, sometimes medical mistakes can cause meconium aspiration. Alternatively, your healthcare provider may commit medical malpractice when they fail to provide appropriate care for an infant with meconium aspiration. If your newborn experienced meconium aspiration and your healthcare provider failed to provide adequate care, you should speak to an experienced birth injury attorney.
Ohio Birth Injury Attorneys
The skilled birth injury attorneys at The Eisen Law Firm understand birth injuries like meconium aspiration. They have experience with medical malpractice law and can advocate for you and your family. Call The Eisen Law Firm at (216) 687-0900 or reach out online.
What Is Meconium Aspiration?
Meconium aspiration is a respiratory or breathing problem that can cause severe illness and death in newborns. According to Johns Hopkins, meconium aspiration affects five to ten percent of births.
Meconium refers to the first feces or stool of a newborn baby. Meconium aspiration happens when a baby eliminates meconium while still in the womb. The baby essentially can breathe in meconium, along with amniotic fluid, prior to delivery. The meconium and amniotic fluid enter the newborn's lungs, leading to difficulty breathing and respiratory distress upon delivery. This can cause a newborn to appear limp and blue.
What Are The Signs Of Meconium Aspiration?
Meconium aspiration is one cause of bluish skin color in newborn infants. Other signs of meconium aspiration include:
- Your newborn has trouble breathing.
- Your newborn is limp at birth.
- There is a green color in the amniotic fluid.
- There is meconium (feces) in the amniotic fluid.
Meconium aspiration is more common in late births. It is also associated with long, difficult labor. Your obstetrician and the delivery team must understand the signs of meconium aspiration to keep your baby safe and healthy.
How Is Meconium Aspiration Diagnosed?
Your obstetrician can diagnose meconium aspiration before birth. Using a fetal monitor, your obstetrician may see that your baby has a slow heart rate, which can be caused by (among other things) meconium aspiration.
After birth, your obstetrician may diagnose meconium aspiration in several ways:
- Your obstetrician may identify meconium in amniotic fluid.
- Your obstetrician may look at your baby's vocal cords with a medical instrument called a laryngoscope and see meconium on your baby's vocal cords.
- Your obstetrician or a pediatrician present at delivery may listen to your baby's lungs with a stethoscope and hear coarse, crackly sounds.
- Your obstetrician or a pediatrician present at delivery may do a blood gas analysis and find reduced levels of oxygen and increased levels of carbon dioxide.
- Your obstetrician or a pediatrician present at delivery may do a chest x-ray of your baby and discover irregularities in your baby's lungs.
How Is Meconium Aspiration Treated?
Meconium aspiration has a good prognosis in most cases. It can be treated in several ways.
- Antibiotics may combat the infection in your baby's lungs.
- Your obstetrician or another member of the delivery team may tap your baby’s chest, loosening the blockage in your baby’s lungs.
- In severe cases, your baby may need to be connected to a breathing machine to allow oxygen to enter your baby's lungs.
Although meconium aspiration has a good prognosis overall, it can also lead to severe injury and death. If your obstetrician makes a mistake, serious injury and death are more likely to occur.
What Kind Of Medical Mistakes Can Occur With Meconium Aspiration?
Several medical mistakes may occur with respect to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of meconium aspiration. First, your obstetrician may fail to prevent it in your infant. For instance, meconium aspiration is more likely to occur with past due births. If your obstetrician neglected to induce birth, resulting in a past due birth, your obstetrician might have contributed to your infant's meconium aspiration.
Second, your obstetrician may make a mistake diagnosing your infant with meconium aspiration. Your obstetrician may fail to diagnose the disease with a fetal monitor prior to birth. Or, once born, your obstetrician may fail to diagnose meconium aspiration.
Failure to diagnose meconium aspiration may lead to deficiencies in treatment. Indeed, your obstetrician must be able to identify the condition to respond appropriately. When an infant is born with meconium aspiration, the obstetrician must first use suction to remove the meconium and amniotic fluid from the infant's airway. If your obstetrician fails to do this, they may have made a medical error.