This blog will explain what hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is, answer common questions about the condition, and detail how medical malpractice attorneys can assist individuals with birth injury cases.
The following is not medical advice but information from medical sources concerning hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Consult a medical provider if your loved one has suffered a birth injury.
What is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke states that hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a broad term for a brain injury caused by reduced or stopped oxygen or blood flow to the brain. Infants can sustain these injuries before, during, or after birth. Medical providers sometimes refer to HIE as birth asphyxia, neonatal encephalopathy, perinatal hypoxia, perinatal encephalopathy, and perinatal asphyxia.
Encephalopathy is a decrease in blood flow or oxygen to the brain. This condition may also affect other organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver.
Some babies who experience HIE have no long-term consequences, while others can experience mild to severe disabilities. And unfortunately, some infants die from this condition.
The severity of HIE a child experiences depends on a number of factors, including:
- How long the child’s brain goes without blood flow or oxygen
- How much of the brain is affected
- How the baby’s brain responds
Sadly, 1 to 6 babies out of every 1,000 born in the United States experience HIE.
What can cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy?
Many things can affect an infant’s chances of experiencing HIE, including having a mother who experienced a difficult pregnancy or delivery. These challenges may include:
- Cord prolapse (when the umbilical cord drops out of place and comes before the baby).
- Cord blood flow obstruction or compression.
- Placental abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterus).
- Placenta previa (when the placenta blocks the cervix).
What are the symptoms of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy?
Immediately after an infant experiences HIE, they may exhibit the following symptoms:
- Lowered heart rate
- Breathing issues
- Acidosis (too much acid in body fluids)
- Unusual movements or seizures
- A newborn’s first stool may be stained
- Low muscle tone
- Pale or blue skin
- Poor reflexes
- Issues feeding
- A weak cry
- No to little response to sound or touch
- Loss of consciousness
What medical issues can hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy cause?
Babies who experience HIE may develop intellectual disabilities, developmental delays, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or heart problems, including cardiac arrest.
How is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy diagnosed?
Medical providers can test for HIE with blood tests, MRIs, ultrasounds, spinal fluid tests, and electroencephalograms (EEGs).
To evaluate neonatal distress, healthcare providers may also use an APGAR test to analyze a child’s heart rate, skin color, muscle tone, reflexes, and breathing.
How is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated?
Medical providers treat HIE using a variety of methods designed to address the underlying causes of the disorder. These methods can help improve symptoms but may also resolve the damage HIE causes:
- Therapeutic hypothermia (a cooling treatment that cools the baby’s body and brain and can reduce the chances the infant’s body and organs will experience further damage)
- Specific treatments for organ damage
- Therapy, including speech, occupational, physical, feeding, or swallowing therapies
- Vision or hearing therapies (hearing aids or eyeglasses/corrective lenses)
- Medications to help prevent seizures
Finding Legal Justice
While not all cases of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy are because of medical malpractice, some HIE cases develop because of birth trauma caused by medical provider error.
Medical Malpractice
When a woman in labor goes to a hospital and receives care from a medical provider, she and her soon-to-be-born child should receive the standard of care. When a hospital or provider/s fails to meet the standard of care for her or her child, she may have a medical malpractice case.
Standard of care means a healthcare provider or medical establishment must use the same learning and skills as any other trained provider or hospital would in similar circumstances.
Most commonly, medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider misses a diagnosis, delays treatment, or fails to treat a condition, harming the patient. Harm typically falls into the following categories:
Physical Injury
Any injury that could cause a medical complication or make an illness worse, or an injury caused because a healthcare provider did not uphold the standard of care.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering includes physical, mental, and emotional pain.
Emotional Distress
Stress, depression, anxiety, or trauma brought on by pain and suffering.
Financial Harm
Financial harm includes lost wages because of missed work, and past, present, and future expenses to correct or treat the medical issue.
Wrongful Death
The worst type of harm someone can experience because of medical negligence is death.
Common Medical Malpractice Causes
Most frequently, medical malpractice cases stem from the following types of medical negligence:
Missed Diagnosis
Unfortunately, healthcare providers sometimes make the wrong diagnosis, fail to identify a disease or illness symptoms, or don’t follow testing or referral protocols.
Delay in Treatment
If a healthcare provider can’t give a correct diagnosis in a timely manner, a patient may experience harm. Therefore, delay in treatment could give rise to a medical malpractice claim.
Delaying treatment for an illness or medical condition includes the following types of actions:
- A medical provider does not recognize the urgency of a patient’s condition.
- A healthcare provider doesn’t quickly or accurately communicate with other patient care team members.
- A doctor or nurse doesn’t quickly order tests or delays interpreting a test.
- A medical practitioner doesn’t refer a patient to a specialist when needed.
Failure to Properly Treat
If a medical practitioner treats a patient incorrectly, the individual may have a medical malpractice case. These types of mistakes could include:
- Prescribing a patient incorrect medication.
- Performing a procedure the wrong way or using an outdated treatment protocol.
- Not giving the right follow-up or aftercare.
- Not identifying illness, disease, or condition signs and symptoms.
The following are examples of how HIE could be caused by medical malpractice:
- Negligent fetal heart rate monitoring
- Failure to see signs of fetal distress during delivery
- Failure to monitor babies who are at high risk for developing HIE (infants with heart problems) or mothers who have pregnancy or labor complications (like low or high blood pressure or emergency C-section)
Because an otherwise healthy baby may require medical care and treatment for their entire life as a result of HIE, an individual with an infant who has HIE may be owed considerable damages to compensate for the harm their baby experienced. Because these expenses are generally significant, birth injury cases are frequently strenuously contested.
Why is it essential to work with an experienced birth injury attorney?
Birth trauma cases are incredibly complex and have innumerable pitfalls. Therefore, it is critically important to work with attorneys who understand high-stakes litigation and the medical concepts involved in these cases.
To succeed, an individual must work with an attorney who understands the medical and legal side of a birth injury case. Attorneys who take birth trauma cases do not just fight about the law; they litigate the medicine, what happened, and what should have occurred under the circumstances at length.
Essential Birth Injury Attorney Qualities
In addition to working with a birth injury attorney who has an understanding of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, it’s important to work with an attorney with the following attributes:
Birth Injury Experience
It’s helpful to choose an attorney who has ample medical malpractice and birth injury experience. An attorney’s exposure to these issues helps them fully comprehend the complexity of these types of cases.
Substantial Resources
Attorneys who regularly handle hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy claims will have a robust network of experienced medical providers to impart expert opinions about a case. These individuals are crucial to helping bring wrongdoers to justice in medical malpractice cases.
Drive to Litigate
A birth injury attorney should know how to use their experience and resources to protect an individual’s rights. These attorneys must persevere to hold those who wronged their clients accountable.
Understanding hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is vital to a birth injury case.
If you or a loved one were injured because of the mistakes of a healthcare professional, it’s important to know your rights. Bartimus Frickleton Robertson Rader is the trusted name for birth injury attorneys in Kansas City. We deliver answers, accountability, and justice for victims of birth injuries like hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
When we represent a client or a family after medical malpractice, we devote the time, resources, and experience to achieve the best possible result. Our attorneys are dedicated to investigating cases the right way—by answering every question and methodically working through each case.
Navigating the aftermath of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy can be challenging. An attorney can give you the support, tools, and resources you need. To get in contact with an attorney today, use our virtual case tool or contact our office at (913) 266-2300 to speak with one of our team members.
The above is not intended to be legal advice. Each individual case is different and must be analyzed on its own set of facts and circumstances. If you believe you may have a case, it is critically important that you timely contact a lawyer to ensure your rights are protected.
