Earlier this week we wrote about “The House of Gort,” a 16-minute documentary that features a family with special needs children. All three children were born with jaundice due to their parents’ incompatible blood type, and medical errors caused one daughter to develop cerebral palsy.
What is Jaundice?
Jaundice occurs when the body fails to expel bilirubin, a waste chemical produced by a reaction inside the liver. It is very common in newborns; the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation says that 90 percent of newborns experience some degree of jaundice in the first few days following birth. Jaundice occurs because the baby must start using its liver for the first time. Until birth, the placenta does the liver’s job.
Jaundice Treatments
Doctors commonly use a light treatment called phototherapy to balance out the bilirubin. Most babies respond positively to the treatment. Gina, the mother in the film, says phototherapy was effective for two of her daughters, but not Eliza, the youngest.
After realizing that Eliza was not responding to the light treatment, doctors attempted an exchange transfusion, in which the baby’s blood is “exchanged” with donor blood via a plastic tube inserted in the stomach. One small mistake can have permanent consequences.
In Eliza’s case, that small mistake was an air bubble inside the tube.
The medical team missed the air bubble, which caused Eliza to go into cardiac arrest and suffer brain damage, ultimately led to her cerebral palsy.
Gina says the head nurse told her that the hospital was a learning environment for new nurses, and mistakes occasionally happened. If you believe that one of these mistakes lead to lifelong complications for someone you know, talk to us. We offer free consultations to discuss your story. Call us at 1-800-460-0606, or visit our site to learn more about cerebral palsy.
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP – birth trauma lawyers
