Tag Archives: birth injury
Birth Trauma Not Uncommon, Unfortunately
Having a child born with birth trauma can be terrifying for new parents. What you had dreamed of as a joy-filled moment can become truly upsetting if something goes wrong. As long as the injury is minor, though, a doctor can usually help your child recover. One of the most common birth injuries is a clavicle fracture. Otherwise known as the collarbone, the clavicle connects the upper part of the breastbone with the shoulder blade. Normally there are no lasting effects from this type of injury. Infants heal quickly, and strapping the arm to the chest should allow the clavicle to heal. Nerve damage is another type of birth injury. The brachial plexus is a group of nerves that travel from the neck to the arm. When an infant’s head and arm are pulled in different directions, damage can occur to this bundle of nerves. If the damage is minor,…
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Posted in Birth Defects, Birth Trauma Tagged birth defect, birth injury, birth trauma attorney Comments Off on Birth Trauma Not Uncommon, Unfortunately
Blanket Puts The Chill On Infant Brain Damage
While a new technique called therapeutic hypothermia might sound a little scary, it is giving hope to infants at risk for brain injury where there have not been many options. Doctors have started wrapping at-risk newborns in cooling blankets to prevent brain damage, and it is proving to be quite effective. The cooling wraps circulate water that keeps the baby’s arms and trunk area at 33.5 degrees, down from the standard 37 degrees. They are kept at this temperature for 3 days, after which they are slowly warmed back up over a 24-hour period. The cooling blanket can reduce the chance of brain injury by 25 percent. Doctors still do not know why lowering body temperature slows damage to the brain, but the theory is that lower temperature slows the rate at which damage can occur. According to Dr. Amit Mathur, neonatal ICU medical director at St. Louis Children’s Center,…
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Posted in Birth Trauma, Brain Damage Tagged Birth Defects, birth injury, birth trauma lawyer Comments Off on Blanket Puts The Chill On Infant Brain Damage
10 Epilepsy Drugs Appear To Cause Birth Defects
There is an ever-increasing list of prescription drugs found to increase the risk of birth defects, and new evidence shows that FDA should add some of the most common epilepsy drugs to the list. AdverseEvents, Inc. a company that analyzes the FDA’s adverse drug event database says that 10 of the most popular epilepsy drugs in the United States have been found to have a large numbers of birth defect-related adverse events. Carbatrol/Tegretol, Depacon/Kene/Kote, Dilantin, Keppra (and IR, Klonopin, Lamictal, Neurontin, Topomax, Trileptal, and Zonegran were found to have more than 25 individual birth defect case reports. AdverseEvents is recommending that the drugs be re-classified to D class from C class, associating them with “positive evidence of human fetal risk”. Class D drugs are generally not prescribed to pregnant women unless there is no less risky alternative. It is especially significant that the FDA re-classify these drugs because most epileptic…
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Posted in Birth Defects, Dangerous Drugs Tagged AdverseEvents Inc., Birth Defects, birth injury, birth trauma attorney, Carbatrol, Depacon, Keppra Comments Off on 10 Epilepsy Drugs Appear To Cause Birth Defects
