Birth Injury Video Series: How Fetal Heart Rate Records Can Be Evidence of Medical Malpractice (Matt Turner)

When a baby is born with neurological damage, parents are left asking the difficult question: “Why did this happen?” One of the critical pieces of evidence we examine in these cases is the fetal monitor tracings, which track the baby’s heart rate in relation to the mother’s contractions during labor.

Unfortunately, sometimes medical professionals don’t respond appropriately to warning signs. When that happens, parents may need to seek legal assistance. At Sommers Schwartz, our team of experienced lawyers, nurses, and medical experts meticulously reviews fetal monitor tracings to determine if the baby should have been delivered sooner. If we find that the baby’s delivery was delayed unnecessarily, we are here to fight for justice on your behalf.

Transcript

When parents have a baby that’s born with neurologic damages, obviously something that nobody wants to have happen. One of the first questions they ask is, why did this happen? Why did this happen to us? And as a lawyer, sometimes I’m the person that is asked that question, and when I am asked that question, one of the first things that I wanna look at is the fetal monitor tracings.

The fetal monitor tracings are evidence of the baby’s heart rate compared to the mom’s contractions, and that evidence can provide very important information as to what happened during that labor as it relates to that baby. Sometimes the fetal monitor tracings are perfectly reassuring, shows that the baby has a very strong heart rate, and that gives the doctors and nurses reassurance that they can allow the delivery to continue.

Unfortunately, other times, those fetal heart rate tracings are non- reassuring. And when those fetal heart rate tracings are non- reassuring, that’s when the doctors and nurses have to use their education, their training, and their experience to deliver that baby before it suffers neurologic damage.

Unfortunately, sometimes. Doctors and nurses don’t respond to those fetal heart rate tracings like they should. and when they do, that’s when people need to call a lawyer like myself so we can review those tracings.

We have a whole team here at Sommers Schwartz of lawyers like myself, nurses and outside experts who pour over those fetal monitor tracings to determine whether there is evidence to indicate that your baby should have been delivered sooner than it was and when we determine that it should have been delivered sooner than it was, that’s when we’re here to fight for you.