Doctor Didn’t Use Antibiotics With Premature Infan
May 142010
In a documented lawsuit, a doctor handled the delivery of an expecting mother’s baby in the thirty-sixth week of the woman’s pregnancy. A full term delivery is considered about 40 weeks. The newborn was thus somewhat premature. A premature delivery is a known risk factor for the newborn contracting an infection from the group b strep bacteria. Physicians generally recommend that antibiotics be used in the course of labor so as to limit the probability of infection to the baby. But, this doctor did not comply with this procedure. Nor did the physician provide antibiotics to the infant after birth. The newborn developed a serious group b strep infection of the respiratory system. As a result, the baby needed to stay in the hospital for several months. The baby suffered lifelong respiratory damage. The law firm that represented the family revealed that it settled for $1.6 Million.