A child suffers a heart attack during childbirth, presumably due to amniotic infection syndrome. The parents then sued the clinic for alleged errors in obstetrics. Now a court has decided the case.
Amniotic Infection Syndrome (AIS) is a serious complication of pregnancy and childbirth. It occurs particularly frequently after the membranes have ruptured and can be dangerous for both mother and child. This is also the case with the newborn son of a 37-year-old woman.
After his birth initially went without complications, the doctors later performed a narrowed CTG and an AIS cesarean delivery through. There were 30 minutes between the decision to have a C-section and the birth of the child.
Since the newborn boy had a fever and slight adjustment disorders and also suffered from respiratory failure, he was transferred to a children’s hospital. There, a cranial magnetic resonance tomography showed a fresh infarction in the supply area of the ramus calcarinus and ramus parietooccipitalis on the right. As a result, the boy will suffer from impairments throughout his life.
Serious allegations against hospital staff
The parents then sued the clinic for 150,000 euros in damages. Among other things, they justified this by saying that the woman should have been transported to the hospital lying down after her membranes ruptured. But that was not the case.
They also complained that the findings were inadequate with a view to the upcoming AIS and the fact that the midwife on duty had looked after several pregnant women at the same time.
No detectable errors after membrane rupture
The Flensburg District Court dismissed the action as unfounded (Az. 3 O 313/20). The court followed the assessment of the expert and found: Doctors are not obliged to transport women who are giving birth after a ruptured membrane only lying down.
It is also not objectionable if a midwife looks after several deliveries at the same time. A fixed midwife or doctor key in the delivery room is not provided in Germany.
In the opinion of the expert – and the court – the findings obtained during the birth also gave no cause for complaint. The CTG recording was interrupted for 13 minutes. However, that alone is not a treatment error. The fact that the mother’s inflammation values were not recorded directly when she was admitted to the delivery room also corresponds to the treatment standards, since there was no evidence of an infection at that time.
According to the expert’s statements, the obstetricians also reacted to the values of the child’s heart curve, the laboratory values and the mother’s body temperature without any treatment errors and carried out the necessary caesarean section delivery in a reasonable time.
Despite the boy’s health impairments, there are no claims for damages or compensation for pain and suffering against the clinic.