All expecting parents hope and pray for a safe delivery and healthy baby. Although there are known risks and consequences, families trust doctors to take good care of them. If a doctor or hospital acts negligently and causes an injury the child or mother, parents may need to consider speaking with a New York birth injury lawyer.
Parents should understand that doctors have a responsibility to maintain a certain standard of care and that standard includes informing mothers of potentially dangerous health situations during pregnancy. This stakes are raised when there is not only one person’s life at risk, but two people’s lives, the mother and the baby. But how far must a doctor or health professional go to ensure that the delivering mother does what is her best interest and in the baby’s best interest?
The question was recently raised after a doctor in South Florida threatened to send the police to a mother’s home unless she came to the hospital immediately for a C-section. Luckily, the baby boy was born healthy and the mother and baby are doing well.
The threat, or advice, apparently came via email to the mother. The doctor said that the baby’s health was in danger. He told the mother to report for a C-section as soon as possible and that if she didn’t, he’d have to call law enforcement to pick her up.
A staff attorney with the New York-based group, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, spoke on behalf of the mother. The staff attorney said the threats from the doctor were unjustified, both legally and ethically. The doctor did eventually write another note that said he was not sending police and the mother did schedule a C-section.
Although the doctor’s actions may seem extreme, if doctor had not voiced his concern, it may have been failure to inform the mother of a potentially dangerous situation. If the baby suffered any injury due to a failure to perform C-section and delivery, the mother may have been able to recover damages for obstetric negligence.
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Doctors uses threat to convince mother to schedule C-section
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Jay W. Dankner
JAY W. DANKNER was born, raised and educated in Brooklyn, New York. After graduation from law school in 1973, he joined the firm of the legendary, Harry H, Lipsig, under whose tutelage he learned the intricacies of civil litigation and trials. He tried and won his first case against General Motors in a case involving a design defect within weeks after his admission. Thereafter, he focused his attention on the emerging and developing field of law known as products liability litigation.
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