$3.875 Million Settlement For Newborn's Brain Injury When Pediatrician Did not Realize Child Had GBS

An expectant mother who is a carrier of the group b streptococcus may transfer the bacteria to her baby during labor even when the mother does not present any symptoms. Studies demonstrate that from about 25% of pregnant women are colonized with group b strep. Without treatment, a child born to a woman who with GBS has a 1 in 200 possibility of developing a Group B Strep infection. By giving the mother appropriate antibiotics in the course of labor the chance that she will pass the group b streptococcusGBS bacteria to her newborn is reduced by 2,000%.

To be able to determine which pregnant women need to be administered antibiotics while in labor, expecting mothers without any symptoms are screened for GBS between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Being tested for Group B Strep is a simple procedure. Given that the bacteria usually lives inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the mother, a swab is used to get a sample. The outcome of the screen are typically available within forty-eight hours.

If an infant acquires a Group B Strep infection but is not treated right away, the infection might turn into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Due to the fact a baby's immune systems is not wholly developed, the infant might be left with permanent physical and neurological harm that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the roughly 7,600 babies each year who become infected with gorup b strep ten to fifteen percent do not survive.

With the considerable danger a group b streptococcus infection poses for newborns, physicians examining an infant who has symptoms consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy need to include it in their differential diagnosis. Examine, for example, a sent to lawsuit in which a child, born to a woman whose GBS screening test had come back positive earlier in the pregnancy during the pregnancy, began to show signs consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. However, the pediatrician did not match the symptoms in the baby's postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which showed that the group b streptococcus bacteria had been found in the mother during the pregnancy. Because of this, the correct diagnosis was postponed and antibiotics were not used immediately.

Given the delay, the newborn sustained brain damage. The law firm that helped the family described that they were able to reach a settlement for the family for $750,000 with the doctor and $3,125,000 with the hospital.


Babies can develop the group b strep infection even tough antibiotics were given to the mother during labor. Research conducted recently also showed that a certain number of newborns who develop the infection even though the mother tested negative. Doctors thus should consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby exhibits symptoms consistent with group b streptococcus . As this matter shows The failure to check the prenatal chart and to consider Group B Strep may amount to liability for medical malpractice.

You can learn more about group b streptococcus and other types of birth injuries including erbs palsy matters by visiting the website