Pitocin, a drug given to pregnant women to help with their contractions, has been the culprit in several recent brain-injury cases involving babies at birth.
The state of Iowa has just agreed to pay a $3.75 million settlement in one of these cases, according to Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/03/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-injured-idUS328128207020120703
And I recently blogged about a similar case, in which an Indiana woman got a $12 million settlement from a hospital after her baby daughter sustained traumatic brain injury during birth.
https://tbilaw.com/blog/hospital-settles-for-12-million-in-birth-brain-damage-case/
Both women were given Pitocin when they were in labor.
In the recent Iowa case, plaintiff Martha Fountain five years ago went to the hospital at University of Iowa to deliver her baby. Pitocin was administered to her to speed up her labor, but instead it made it longer, going on for 28 hours, according to Reuters.
In the process, Fountain’s baby boy sustained brain injury, and is now severely retarded, because of the excessive contractions she had, prompted by the Pitocin, she alleged, Reuters reported.
In her negligence and malpractice lawsuit, Fountain argued that the hospital gave her Pitocin before checking to see if her own contractions were already too strong or too frequent, according to Reuters.
The hospital has denied any negligence, claiming that the baby’s brain injury wasn’t the result of problems during his birth.
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