San Antonio NEC Lawyer for Medical Malpractice Claims

What is Failure to Diagnose Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Nec)?

Failure to diagnose NEC occurs when medical professionals do not recognize or act upon the early signs and symptoms of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This delay in diagnosis and treatment can lead to severe long-term complications, including intestinal perforation (a hole in the intestinal wall), severe infection leading to sepsis, and even death.

If your infant suffered from sepsis or another serious infection because a medical professional failed to recognize the signs of NEC, contact a San Antonio sepsis attorney for a free consultation.

How Medical Malpractice Can Hurt a NEC Baby

A baby can develop NEC without the involvement of medical mistakes. However, medical professionals should be well-versed in the risks of developing NEC, and if the baby does develop the condition, NEC treatments should follow immediately to minimize damage to the baby’s bowel. Treatments should certainly occur before the infant develops a severe infection.

If a doctor suspects that a baby developed NEC, they should order an x-ray of the baby’s belly, test bowel movements for blood, and check the baby’s white blood cell count. However, even a doctor’s failure to suspect NEC does not absolve them of medical negligence in most cases.

Once the baby is diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis, the doctor should ensure feedings are stopped and order an intravenous line (IV) to give the baby sufficient fluids and antibiotics. An orogastric or nasogastric tube may be used to help both low-birth-weight babies and full-term babies by removing food, gas, and air from the baby’s stomach. The doctor should also monitor the child’s belly and overall condition with more X-rays, arterial blood gases, and blood tests.

Even for low birth weight infants, medical staff should have caught the baby’s necrotizing enterocolitis soon enough for these treatments to help the baby’s condition. However, in cases in which necrotizing enterocolitis was discovered much later, the infant may require surgeries to prevent additional damage to the intestinal tissue or for the baby to survive NEC altogether.

The first surgery removes the damaged portion of the baby’s intestinal wall and places a colostomy or ileostomy to help the baby’s belly heal. After the necrotizing enterocolitis infection is gone, the baby will undergo additional surgery to reconnect the bowel or reverse the colostomy.

Do Doctors Lie About Medical Malpractice in Birth Injuries?

Unfortunately, doctors do not always fully disclose medical errors or negligent lapses in medical care. This can be especially true in cases of birth injuries, where medical professionals might be reluctant to admit fault due to the rightfully severe consequences and potential legal repercussions.

The Mongan Institute for Health conducted a survey of almost 1,900 doctors. In this survey, 1 out of 5 doctors admitted they “hadn’t fully disclosed their mistakes over the past year in order to avoid a lawsuit.”

This survey of doctors also revealed that 40% “didn’t think it was necessary to tell patients if they had accepted speaking fees or a free vacation from the manufacturer of the drug they were prescribing or whether they owned the scanner for the imaging test they were ordering.”

This information is important. 80% of baby formulas in the United States come from major pharmaceutical companies. Abbott Laboratories, the manufacturer responsible for the formulas named in many baby formula lawsuits, falls into this category.

Doctors are frequently courted by big pharmaceutical and medical device companies, like Abbott Laboratories, who provide them incentives to promote products. Critics have raised concerns over neonatal intensive care units providing promotional marketing materials to patients. Specifically, many were already concerned about the baby formula samples provided in hospital settings to new mothers long before any NEC infant formula lawsuit came to fruition.

So, while your baby’s physician or neonatal intensive care unit may not have been responsible for toxic baby formula products, they did have access to the FDA’s information, and the hospital gladly helped market the Similac and Enfamil baby formula to new moms with babies born prematurely, despite the known risks.