In past years, serious injury and death resulting from child birth was fairly common. Thankfully, today modern medicine has advanced to improve the monitoring and diagnosis of potential complications that may arise during child birth. In some cases, however, even normal deliveries can go terribly wrong due to the negligent acts of doctors and attending medical staff.
In April of 2012, a 28-year-old woman and her husband were ecstatic as they welcomed a baby girl into the world. Twelve days later, however, the new mother died as a result of undiagnosed complications resulting from her child's birth.
The woman delivered her daughter via a normal vaginal delivery. After the child's birth, however, the second-year resident doctor that delivered the baby noted that the woman's placenta was not intact. The woman's husband recalls hearing the young resident note that the placenta "broke" and was "coming out in pieces". Despite the fact that the placenta was not removed intact, the medical records recorded that day declare that the placenta was manually removed and was "intact and complete".
After the birth of a child, the placenta must be completely removed. Failure to completely remove even a small portion of the placenta can result in infection and internal hemorrhaging. If left undiagnosed and untreated, a retained placenta can even result in death.
Signs that something wasn't quite right presented a couple days later as the new mother returned to the hospital complaining of pain and urinary problems. Medical staff performed an MRI, which appeared normal and discharged the woman. The new mother returned to the hospital again a week later for a follow-up appointment. Again, doctors failed to detect or diagnose the retained placenta and the woman was sent home.
Sadly, the new mother died three days later. An autopsy showed the cause of death to be a massive infection and internal bleeding that was caused by a 9-by-5 centimeter portion of retained placenta. The woman's husband has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and doctor citing negligence.
Source: The New York Post, "Bronx woman died after childbirth due to botched placenta removal: lawsuit," Susan Edelman, Feb. 10, 2013