A Sydney Australia court has cleared an obstetrician of any financial liability in a birth trauma lawsuit. George Angus was the specialist on duty when a baby was born with brain damage in September of 1995.
The family of the baby had previously reached a settlement of $7.5 Million with the Greater Southern Area Health Service (GSAHS), an organization that provides health care to people living in specified regions of New South Wales, Australia.
The birth of the baby was complicated when his shoulders became blocked and the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. These complications lead to a deprivation of oxygen which resulted in brain damage.
The GSAHS, in an effort to recover some of the birth injury settlement, filed a lawsuit against Dr. Angus, claiming the difficult birth was partly his fault because he did not order utilization of a cardiotocograph (CTG) monitor.
A CTG monitor graphs how the fetal heart is responding to activity of the mother’s uterus. The results show patterns that can help predict positive outcome for the fetus, or if the baby is at risk of a birth injury.
The judge ruled that, “The omission to monitor by CTG … made no material contribution to the injury suffered by (the baby),” and therefore cleared the doctor of liability.download Not Easily Broken download American High School movie
