Emory Healthcare complaint alleges nurses removed a fetal monitor before a cord prolapse and a newborn’s death
The complaint alleges that hospital nurses removed a hospitalized pregnant patient from continuous fetal monitoring despite a non-reassuring fetal heart tracing. The mother was off the monitor in March 2016 from 5:30 p.m. until 6:27 p.m., while she was given a sponge bath. By 6:51 p.m., fetal heart variability was minimal to undetectable, the umbilical cord had prolapsed, and an emergency cesarean section followed. The newborn was delivered at 26.6 weeks gestation not breathing and limp, and was resuscitated and transferred for treatment of a hypoxic brain injury. He died about seven months later, and the complaint alleges the fetal monitor’s removal was the proximate cause of his fatal injury.
Overview
This page concerns a public complaint alleging that hospital nurses removed a pregnant patient’s fetal monitor before a cord prolapse and a newborn’s death.
Chronology
The complaint alleges as follows:
- The mother, pregnant with twins, was admitted to Emory Midtown Hospital in March 2016; her membranes ruptured the same day.
- Continuous fetal monitoring was ordered, and nurses recorded periods of fetal bradycardia and absence of variability over the following days.
- About eight days later, a nurse recorded deep fetal heart decelerations at 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.
- At 5:30 p.m. a nurse recorded that the mother was taken off the fetal monitor, and a sponge bath followed.
- She was reconnected at 6:27 p.m. By 6:51 p.m. the cord had prolapsed and fetal heart variability was minimal to undetectable, prompting an emergency cesarean section.
- The newborn was delivered at 7:03 p.m. at 26.6 weeks, not breathing, and was transferred to Grady Memorial Hospital for a brain injury.
- He died at Grady Memorial Hospital on October 16, 2016, of complications from the hypoxic brain injury.
Alleged failures
The complaint alleges the following failures:
- The fetal monitor strip was non-reassuring before the mother was taken off the monitor at 5:30 p.m. The nurse expert says it had not been reassuring for the prior 30 minutes.
- Had monitoring continued, the affidavits state, the cord prolapse would have been detected and the newborn delivered safely.
- The hospital is vicariously liable for its nurses’ negligence under respondeat superior, the complaint alleges.
- The complaint pleads wrongful death and negligence, with vicarious liability, and seeks the estate’s damages for the newborn’s pain and suffering. It attaches expert affidavits from a registered nurse and a physician under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1.