Archives for August 2014

A woman was admitted to Chowan Hospital to have labor induced for the birth of her baby. She was admitted on a Friday night, labor was induced, and she was given the drug Pitocin on Saturday morning. No vaginal exam was performed until after noon on Saturday.

The nurse who performed the exam discovered an umbilical prolapse, a condition where the umbilical cord protrudes from the vagina. If the cord becomes compressed, it can restrict the flow of blood and oxygen to the baby, causing brain damage.

The nurse called the attending obstetrician and prepared the mother for an emergency C-section. It took 16 minutes to move the mother into the operating room, where the C-section was performed under local anesthetic. [Read more…]

Someone who is injured by the negligence of a staff member at a hospital may have a basis for a lawsuit, for either negligence or for medical malpractice.

The procedural requirements for the two causes of action  are different, and a plaintiff must satisfy the right set of requirements to maintain a lawsuit in court.

The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently reversed a ruling by a trial court granting a motion by a defendant hospital to dismiss a plaintiff’s case with prejudice. The hospital had argued in support of its motion to dismiss that the plaintiff failed to satisfy the statutory requirements for filing a medical malpractice claim. The Supreme Court, however, found that the basis for the plaintiff’s claim was not medical malpractice, but negligence by hospital staff, which did not have the statutory requirements for filing. [Read more…]