A couple has filed a lawsuit against the state of Iowa, alleging that doctors at a hospital damaged the woman’s bladder during a C-section delivery, and also injured the newborn baby during birth. The state of Iowa is being sued because it is the operator of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Jody Schmitz was taken to the hospital in active labor in February 2008. She was rushed into the operating room for a Cesarean section. During the Cesarean section, the doctors cut the dome of her bladder. The baby also suffered injuries during the delivery.
As a result of the bladder injury, Schmitz suffered a number of complications later including infections, abscesses and bowel obstructions. She was severely ill and had to be placed on a feeding tube. The baby also suffered numerous birth injuries, including skull fractures, and skull deformities. He also suffered severe subdural hemorrhage during the delivery.
The lawsuit that she and her husband have now filed against the state of Iowa contends that the state is responsible for the negligence of medical personnel at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The doctors were negligent in monitoring the woman’s labor as well as the delivery of the baby. They failed to take the patient immediately to the operating room and failed to safely deliver the baby.
Parents of infants, who have suffered a severe birth injury, may undergo severe trauma and anxiety themselves. For many parents, it can be several stressful days before they realize the extent or the severity of the baby’s injuries.
Birth injuries can be of several types, but the most common types of injuries that birth injury lawyers come across are infant brain injuries as a result of hypoxia, brachial plexus injuries and Erb’s Palsy. Parents of infants who have suffered a birth injury can file a lawsuit that entitles them to compensation for the baby’s medical expenses and other damages.