Category Archives: Birth Trauma
New Twin Study Suggests Connection Between Autism and Environmental Factors
Recently, an autism study out of Stanford University’s medical school yielded results that challenge long-held beliefs about autism’s origins. The study, centered on 192 sets of twins with autism, and found that sets of fraternal twins had much higher levels of shared autistic similarities than expected. Previously, scientists had assumed that 90 percent of autism risk was tied to genetics, with only 10 percent tied to environmental risks. Fraternal twins only share half of their genetic material, while identical twins share all their genes, but the findings from the research did not back up the assumed percentages. The high levels of similarities in fraternal twins led doctors and researchers to conclude that environmental factors, not just genetics, may put people at risk for autism. According to the co-author of the study, doctors and scientists should focus future research on events during pregnancy to understand autism’s origins. The researchers in the…
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Posted in Autism, Birth Trauma Tagged Autism, birth trauma attorney, fraternal twins Comments Off on New Twin Study Suggests Connection Between Autism and Environmental Factors
Iowa Family Sues For Botched C-Section and Birth Injury
A husband and wife in Iowa are accusing the staff at the University of Iowa Hospital of medical negligence and suing the organization in an attempt to gain restitution for the injury of their newborn son. Jody and Steve Schmitz allege that doctors cut the dome of Jody’s bladder during a C-section, and injured the skull of their child, Aiden, during the delivery. Aiden suffered a skull deformity, a partial skull fracture and several areas of subdural hemorrhage during the “traumatic birth,” according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also claims that, because of her bladder injury, Jody suffered infection, bowel obstruction, pelvic abscess and wound separation, and doctors had to place her on a feeding tube. The couple originally filed their complaints with the State Appeal Board, but the board denied them. The Schmitz’s hope to obtain damages for all that their son has experienced and will experience in relation…
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Posted in Birth Trauma, Brain Damage Tagged birth injury, birth injury attorney Comments Off on Iowa Family Sues For Botched C-Section and Birth Injury
Boy Gets Birth Injury Award Five Years Later
It appears that the little boy who suffered a severe brain injury during his birth at a Florida hospital in 1997 will finally see the $30 million awarded to him by a Florida jury. Aaron Edwards was born at a Lee Memorial Health System hospital. In 2007, a jury found that negligent actions by nurses caused Edwards a crippling brain injury and that they failed to follow standard hospital rules and regulations. According to Roden, when her son was born, Lee Memorial was a private institution. However, by the time the lawsuit was over, Lee Memorial had been bought out by the state of Florida. As a government hospital, Lee Memorial gained sovereign immunity, which prevents individuals from collecting judgments of more than $200,000 from government agencies without the state legislature passing a bill to allow it. A few weeks ago, the Florida legislature finally heard arguments from Aaron’s mother…
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Posted in Birth Trauma, Brain Damage, Cerebral Palsy Tagged birth trauma attorney, brain injury Comments Off on Boy Gets Birth Injury Award Five Years Later
