If you suffered a placental abruption, you could be suffering serious physical and emotional pain. If you believe your injuries could have been prevented or that you suffered additional injuries due to a medical professional’s negligence, a qualified birth injury attorney could help. A Chattanooga placental abruption lawyer could look over the facts of your case and assist you in recovering compensation for your injuries. Call our team today.
What is Placental Abruption?
Placental abruption is when the placenta separates from the uterus before childbirth. The placenta is the connection between the child and the mother, and if the placenta loses contact with the mother, the nutrients and the protections that the child is getting from the mother are also lost.
Placental abruption symptoms include vaginal bleeding or discharge. It also usually includes sharp pain similar to what expecting mothers feel frequently, but can also include pain in other parts of the body including the back. There is a tenderness in the abdomen around the uterus. It also can cause contractions, often coming in very close succession, and can cause a knot or what feels like a mass in the abdomen around the uterus.
A doctor has several tools at their disposal to diagnose a placental abruption, including exams and ultrasounds. There are several different things doctors can do to treat placental abruption, but the goal is for the placenta to be reattached. Sometimes, that can be done surgically, or the doctor can create an environment where the placenta will reattach itself.
Standard of Care in Chattanooga
The standard of care for placental abruptions is that doctors must respond quickly and efficiently. They need to encourage their patients to seek treatment immediately.
The symptoms are often communicated over the phone when a pregnant woman calls the doctor’s office. A doctor should tell the mother to go to the ER or come to the office immediately. In these serious situations, doctors must diagnose the issue quickly and the provide quick treatment if possible.
Establishing Liability in a Placental Abruption Case
The first requirement for filing a lawsuit for placental abruption is that an individual must prove that the doctor violated the standard of care by not paying close enough attention, not responding quickly enough, or not responding in an effective way and in a way that would have prevented the problem. An individual also must prove that there were damages that the placental abruption and the failure to treat the placental abruption caused damages to the child or the mother.
Unfortunately, that often means the death of the child or sometimes, brain damage to the child. The plaintiff must prove an injury occurred and that if the doctor had acted differently, that injury would have been prevented. Fortunately, a placental abruption lawyer in Chattanooga could help an injured party with establishing negligence.
Complications of Filing a Lawsuit
The process of filing a lawsuit is fairly complicated. It requires an expert review prior to filing the lawsuit, and the expert has to certify that there is valid malpractice that has occurred. Then notice has to be given with a HIPAA-compliant medical authorization to all the potential defendants. All the potential defendants have to receive certain authorization and specific types of notices. An accomplished attorney could help a claimant with making sure the filing of a lawsuit goes over smoothly.
Contact a Chattanooga Placental Abruption Attorney
It is crucial to hire an attorney experienced in medical malpractice because the procedures required for medical malpractice cases are different from every other type of injury case. These procedures are more specific and more detailed, and there is a great deal of law that is very specific to medical malpractice cases that other lawyers simply do not deal with on a regular basis.
If you or a loved one suffered injuries due to the negligence of a medical professional, call a Chattanooga placental abruption lawyer. An attorney could fight for your right to compensation.
